On the Open Sea
by Darkened Shadows
Summary: Akane is sent to the One Piece universe and immediately begins interacting with the Straw Hat crew. Better summary within. Eventual Akane/Zoro. Timing takes place one year post-manga for Ranma and directly after the Arlong arc for One Piece.
1. Out of the Sky

**Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and all characters therein belong to Rumiko Takahashi. One Piece and all characters therein belong to Eiichira Oda. Vengeance demons and Arashmaharr belong to Joss Whedon. Only the plot belongs to me.**

**Summary: After Shampoo makes a wish, a vengeance demon sends Akane to the One Piece universe. After being saved from drowning, she joins the Straw Hat crew. Eventual Akane/Zoro romance.**

**Author's Note: For those of you who follow my stuff, I'm sorry I started yet another fanfic. My husband finally got me to watch One Piece and this idea beset me like a fever dream. As long as I'm writing something, yeah?**

* * *

Being a vengeance demon in the Nerima ward of Tokyo, Japan was a difficult thing but Makoto was determined. He was one of the few demons that dared to encroach on oni territory and was successful. It was likely because of his subtle nature and those that he helped to avenge – those that suffered from unrequited love.

He had been feeling the pull of this place for almost two years before he finally traveled to Nerima after a near explosion of emotion. Yes, the New World had more instances of unrequited love than he could ever handle in a hundred years but when the Japanese did something, they had the potential to do it big.

So, he'd watched the center of the influx of unrequited love for about a year, waiting for the wish that he wanted and planning a good exit strategy. He would have to leave immediately because the Japanese demon community would instantly be attracted to the magic use. Watching and waiting and being nothing more than a being of minimal power among outrageous martial artists was the best and most prudent plan.

Akane had been the first to notice him and Makoto had instantly realized why so many were in love with her. Her pseudo-fiancé's charms were so obvious it hurt – Ranma was the ideal specimen of man, his off-color transformation notwithstanding. He caused girls to swoon merely by crossing their paths. The girl, however, was sweet and understanding and had that aura of strength that came from being a trained martial artist.

He often wondered why her compassion didn't extend to Ranma. That is, until he witnessed one of their arguments, a flurry of insults which Akane felt too keenly and it seemed Ranma often didn't feel at all. Some questions about his past had answered why – his father trained him with negative reinforcement. Thus, the younger Saotome took the insults as encouragement to be better while the youngest Tendo alternately stewed and retaliated against the treatment.

It was no small wonder that after that debacle of a wedding, she managed to pull herself together enough to force her father to reteach her from the basics. Her katas were more precise and fluid and her strength had increased twofold in the time since they'd met. However, she still lacked speed and her endurance was very low when compared to the other aspects of the Art.

"Makoto!" Akane called, throwing the demon out of his thought process momentarily. "You coming?"

He smiled at the girl, flicking his glance to Ranma. They were in a big group, attacking the nearest cineplex in force following the graduation ceremony. Going through the motions of humanity, he joined them inside the theater, allowing the emotion that gave him power flow over him in waves. It had been building for a long time but he had to be sure about what he wanted done.

Akane was the key. Oh yes, Ranma was the center, drawing people to him almost like gravitational pull, but if the girl was gone, the chaos that ensued would be uncontainable. Grinning to himself, he allowed the darkness to consume him. The time for action would come soon enough.

Not thirty minutes had passed before he heard murmured directly to his left. It was the Chinese adolescents – Mousse and Shampoo – having a deep conversation in their native Mandarin. It was a good thing for Makoto that language was not a barrier for him.

{She'll be gone to university soon,} Mousse was assuring the girl gently.

{That's not enough!} Shampoo whispered sharply.

The boy sighed and Makoto saw him push his glasses up on his face. {What would be enough, dear Shampoo?}

She handed him a glare at the use of the endearing honorific. {I wish…} The demon held his breath and allowed his focus to zero in on them. {I wish she was gone forever, never to return.}

The demon allowed his face to break out in a grin. Success! He lightly touched the heavy sapphire gem that lay beneath his shirt and whispered, "Done." In the blink of an eye, Akane had disappeared to a place that Makoto did not even know. As the knowledge of a completed mission filled him, he disappeared as well, to the realm of Arashmaharr.

The Japanese demons, hybrid and otherwise, would be flooding the theater soon enough and he had no need to spill the blood of his own kin.

* * *

Zoro laid on the rear of the ship, trying to lose himself in a nap. However, Luffy and Usopp were dancing around the ship, singing loudly. If they were on the other end of the ship, he could have almost pretended they weren't there but no such luck. As it was, he just laid very still and let everyone believe he was unconscious.

Then suddenly, a scream ripped through the air, jerking his eyes open. He sat up immediately and looked over the railing in time to witness the large splash. Looking across the expanse of open sea for other vessels, he wondered where… whoever it was had come from. There were no other ships in sight and from the magnitude of the splash, the person had dropped from a great height, almost as if from a crow's nest.

"What was that?" Nami asked as she made her way to Zoro's general vicinity, the sound of the splash probably distracting her from her maps.

Then the person bobbed up to the surface. "Help! I can't…" Zoro realized the person in need was a female, something he'd already guessed from the high pitch of the scream, with dark hair made black by the water.

As she lost her battle with the surface, he pulled his boots off his feet and his remaining katana out of the loop that held it. He stood and leaped over the railing, finding his rhythm as soon as he hit the water to swim out of the drowning girl. The change in temperature sent a jolt to his system, fully dragging him out of the lethargy that plagued him when he sought sleep.

His eyes focused and he could see the girl sinking slowly, already having lost consciousness, about ten meters from his current position. Powerful strokes of his arms took him quickly to her side and he scooped her at the waist and brought them both to the surface. After he breathed in a lungful of air, he took a moment to survey her features.

Upon closer inspection, Zoro could see that she had dark blue hair like Kuina's but that was where the similarities ended. Her face was heart-shaped, different enough from his late friend/rival's that the memories remained where they were instead of brimming to the surface, and she was very small. Or it had seemed when she was sinking but his hands could feel hard musculature beneath the skin. The girl was a fighter, though he wouldn't know what kind until she was awake again.

He grabbed hold of the rope that Nami had fed down to him with one hand, looping the end of it around his ankle with a quick movement. The navigator and Usopp heaved him back on deck and he laid the girl down gently. He immediately leaned his ear over her mouth to begin first aid.

She wasn't breathing!

Fighting the panic that clouded his mind, Zoro leaned down to begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation. As such, his face was only inches from her face when she coughed and sputtered, sending a spray of sea water and saliva into his face. The shock of her suddenly coming alive without even the slightest chest compression or act of CPR caused him to rock backwards, catching himself on his heels before he could make a complete fool out of himself.

Her body convulsing with the action, the girl rejected the water that had likely found refuge in her lungs and she moved herself into a sitting position. She pressed a hand to her chest as the expulsion of water slowed and finally opened her eyes.

It was like looking into liquid chocolate, was Zoro's first thought. He could see the confusion flash in those eyes, quickly followed by alarm and… determination?

She scrambled to her feet instantly, her body pulled into a defensive stance despite the way her wet dress tried to keep her legs from making the movement. "What's going on?"

Zoro stood but didn't move closer to her. She seemed on edge and he knew personally that being female didn't keep someone from being skilled. "I saved you just now," he told her gently. "From drowning."

She pinned him with a hard stare, searching his dark eyes with her own, before she turned thoughtful. He could literally see something connecting in her mind but he knew he might wait for some time before he knew what that something was.

Suddenly, Luffy was there, breaking into the girl's very obvious personal bubble. "Hey, who're you?"

Her pensive state must have kept her from noticing the captain's approach because she made a muffled shriek, almost as if she swallowed the sound, and punched him dead in the nose. Now Nami had done the same on several occasions and it had only served to knock him to the ground; the punch from this girl that seemed so small knocked him back with enough force to shove him into Zoro and force them both to the ground.

With a gasp that sounded very feminine, she covered her mouth with her hands and moved to help them both to their feet. "I'm sorry. I just—And he was—" She stopped herself and took a breath. "I'm very sorry. I'm Akane."

Nami laughed heartily, her eyes dancing merrily at the sight of a girl knocking both Luffy and Zoro to the ground. "They're fine," she assured her immediately. "I'm Nami, they're Luffy and Zoro, and this is Usopp. Our cook, Sanji, is in the galley. We're pirates," she told her with a wink.

Concern flooded Zoro when he saw alarm flit across Akane's face. "Pirates? You're not gonna kill me, are you?"

"Wow, you're strong!" Luffy exclaimed suddenly, probing his nose experimentally. He winced slightly at the touch and then grinned at their newcomer.

However, the compliment was not taken as well as the swordsman would have expected, as Akane's face turned dark with some errant thought. While he knew that Nami saw the expression, she moved to make the girl feel at home again. "Come on, let's get you some dry clothes."

Akane frowned at the sodden dress and a smile finally spread across her face, though Zoro could still see the misgivings in her eyes. "Okay, thanks."

The green-haired swordsman stared after the departing girls and then looked at Luffy's slightly swollen nose. The captain was grinning as if he had already decided something. As for the first mate, he knew what it meant: they had gained a new nakama.

Now, they just had to convince her of that.


	2. Settling In

**Author's Note: Fair warning, there may be some jumps and leaps from arc to arc (i.e. from the Lost Island arc to the Laboon arc) but nothing too bad. Also, if Akane seems out of character, bear with me. I've been writing too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic lately and sometimes it screw with my writing.**

* * *

Akane crept out of the room where both she and Nami slept and onto the deck. The world had given over to night some time ago and she was feeling melancholy. Stargazing always made her feel better, though there had been precious little places to clearly see in the heavens in Nerima. As she climbed the mast to reach the crow's nest, she ruminated on the new turn her life had taken.

After the failed wedding about a year ago, most of the chaos in Nerima had faded down to normal. Or rather, what served as normal since Ranma had entered her life. She'd made a new friend in Makoto, a new student when they entered their last year of mandatory schooling, and had somehow found renewed vigor for training. She had spent so long not being serious about it that she'd begged her father to cope with her as they started from the beginning. It had galled her when she realized she couldn't pick up much more speed than before, though her agility had increased some and her strength had more than doubled.

Conversations with Nami and a look at her maps informed Akane that there was truly nothing familiar in this world. The navigator had been more than happy to explain everything to her when she informed the redhead of what she knew of her predicament. One second she was in a theater, the next falling through the air into the sea. As far as she could tell, this world was a century or so behind the world she was used to, technologically speaking. Additionally, a Pirate Era had gripped this world for the past twenty years or so and not all pirates were like the horror stories she had in her brain.

As a matter of fact, only a couple of the crew had started out with piracy in mind.

Finally, she reached the lookout point of the ship and pulled herself over the ledge, landing with a loud thud. She thought about rearranging herself into a more ladylike position but almost immediately tossed the idea aside. This was much more comfortable and suited to her idea for escaping the oblivion of sleep: to watch the stars.

"Huh? What?" Startled by the sound of someone's attention turning to her, Akane held herself very still. She wasn't sure if it was the pirate thing or the fact that so many of them were men. After all, Sanji had already proved himself to be as flowery and perverted as Kuno.

When a sleep-fogged expression topped with the familiar moss-green hair, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Zoro, hi." It was then that she realized that Nami probably had then on constant shifts of land lookout because they were getting close to Loguetown, their planned rest stop before heading for the Grand Line.

Zoro yawned widely. "Akane, what are you doing up?"

She smiled. She didn't know why but she trusted him, despite her usual tendency to distrust anything that wasn't nonthreatening. It was probably the whole 'he saved me from dying' thing. To answer him, she just pointed up at the sky.

"The stars?" he asked simply. He looked upwards, arching an eyebrow at the dark and twinkling night. "Why?"

Akane giggled softly. "Why do I stargaze? I always did at home because it helped me to get my mind off of me and my many faults. Besides, they're pretty."

"Faults?" the swordsman echoed around another yawn. This one was smaller, though; Akane could tell that he was waking up.

She looked down at her hands, curling them into claws as Ranma's derisive voice circled inside her skull. "You know, that I'm uncute and stupid and way too strong for a girl." She sighed and forced herself to look up again, though this time her view was somewhat obscured by Zoro's face and his too-serious eyes.

"If you weren't cute, Sanji wouldn't fawn over you," he told her in his level voice. "And I'm pretty sure you're not stupid."

She rolled her eyes and twisted her lips ruefully, deciding not to move when the swordsman moved closer to her rather than have to continuously crane his neck around the mast. "I notice you don't deny me being too strong."

Zoro unleashed a short laugh. "And you say it like it's a bad thing?" he countered. "We're pirates, Akane. Man or woman, we've got to be strong to survive. Besides," he added with a sidelong glance, "your strength is what Luffy likes best."

Akane sighed and took it in. She knew that Nami had relayed much of how she had come to be here, though it didn't make much sense. After two days of stewing on the problem, she finally tossed it aside. She was here and this world was about living in the now; her worries about the past or the future just didn't matter.

"Enough with this emotional… stuff," he told her falteringly. "What kind of fighting do you do?"

Smirking slightly, she finally pulled herself up to stand next to him, staring at the dark horizon and wondering if she could see light in the distance. "How can you tell?"

"The way you carry yourself." He shrugged. "And I saved you, little hammer. I know what kind of muscles you hide under your clothes." He waggled his eyebrows outrageously enough that she couldn't help but giggle at his expression.

She punched him in the arm just hard enough to rock him slightly to the side. "Pervert," she muttered, not angrily but almost endearingly. "Well, it's like this…" Then, she continued to describe her father's school of Anything Goes Martial Artists, having to backtrack and explain the Anything Goes school itself and including her proficiency with weapons. She didn't include the thought that her father had likely trained her in weaponry because he thought that the hand-to-hand skill would not be enough in a female or her own doubt in her ability.

Neither one of them realized they had created a tradition where if one of them had night watch, the other would come out midway through the night bearing warmth in one form or another and conversation.

* * *

Loguetown.

It reminded Akane instantly of Ginza, the upscale shopping district in Chuo, Tokyo. That would be one of the things she missed from home – department stores and instant… everything. Not that there weren't things like instant coffee or water additives here, but just the thought of it seemed to require so much more work.

Shaking her head of thoughts that would only succeed in an endless spiral of homesickness and futility, she gazed at the yen notes in her hand. The one thing she was grateful to Nami's nature was her thirst for knowledge, which resulted in a lot of books in the shelving in their room. Oddly enough, her curiosity on the history of this world had led her to the discovery that the design of the Beli about one hundred fifty years ago very closely resembled her current yen.

There had to be a novelty store or a collector in this town, right?

Stowing the bills back into her purse, which had somehow survived her near-drowning intact, Akane climbed down the rope ladder to the harbor deck. She smiled when she saw Zoro make wild gestures at Nami, not exactly rude by strict standards but the feeling still there, and stalk away. As she walked closer to the girl in question, she instantly realized why the swordsman had been so agitated.

Nami's face when she faced Akane was a mirror-image of Nabiki. The hair and eyes might be different but she knew that arched eyebrow and half-smirk all the same. And the best way to keep from being swindled was to offer something better. Akane felt her lips curl into a smile; if Nami helped her with this, it wouldn't be half as difficult as she was expecting.

"You need money for today?" Nami's voice was as innocent as she could pitch it.

Akane shook her head slightly. "You see, I've got a problem." She pulled out one of her yen notes and held it up for the navigator to see. "I need these converted to current Beli."

The redhead moved to snatch the bill from Akane but she was too quick, having already slipped it back into her purse. The last year's training did have some benefits. "Where did you get that?"

A rueful feeling settled over Akane and she realized her suspicion was correct: Nami thought she was from this world and didn't really believe she had literally fallen out of the sky. Pushing the thought that it could be used to her advantage to the back of her mind, she focused on her offer to the thief. "If you help me get a good price out of these, I'll give you thirty percent." When Nami opened her mouth, likely to haggle her cut upward, Akane interrupted her immediately. "Take it or leave it. If you try to haggle, your cut goes down."

Huffing softly through her nose, Nami closed her mouth immediately and nodded sharply, holding out her hand to shake on the deal. Some light research on Akane's part had assured her that most people couldn't tell the difference between the former Beli currency and yen in addition that even the smallest currency from that time was worth more than three times that now.

Grinning slightly at her luck, Akane allowed Nami to lead her through Loguetown. Sure, they had to diverge to a slightly shady section to get the kind of money the navigator wanted out of her thirty percent, but she had a great day, unimpeded by her own insecurities or the chaos it seemed only Nerima could contain.

* * *

The storm had advanced quickly.

Akane had spent most of the money she'd received from posing her yen as ancient Beli on essentials: clothes so that she wasn't living out of Nami's clothing, a few new training gis, and some water-resistant chalk. She planned to use the rear of the ship as a training area and the chalk would help as a guideline for keeping her katas inside the circle.

She had just finished marking the circle, two meters in diameter and perfectly round, when she felt the air change. A look upwards granted her the knowledge that clouds were moving in fast and she took the opportunity to change into some of her new clothing: a pair of denim pants and a scoop-necked floral shirt.

Where was the rest of the crew?

Ordinarily, she wouldn't be that worried – she had some seafaring knowledge from the Jusendo incident – but Nami had told her this town had a very strong Marine captain stationed here. And the Marines themselves were a little disconcerting.

In Nerima, there was nothing to stop all the outrageous martial artists aside from their own self-restraint and each other. But this world had the Marines, soldiers that not even the navigator knew a lot about. The important thing was that if you had a bounty, they would come after you; the higher the bounty, the more intensely they chased you. After their most recent adventure, the details of which Akane was still fuzzy, Luffy had received a bounty to the amount of thirty million Beli.

Personally, Akane didn't like these Marines. Maybe it was because of the biased stories she'd received up to this point or maybe it was that world history always showed that the people that ruled were not always the person you want ruling. Alternatively, she knew there were pirates out there that deserved to be chased, the same kind of pirates that Akane herself feared when she heard the term.

It only cemented her decision to train all the harder.

After a moment of hand-wringing indecision, she scrambled up to the crow's nest, trying to battle the smothering foreboding that settled in her chest. Nami was scary accurate when it came to predicting the weather, that much Akane had already seen. She was likely already on her way and she could only hope that the rest of the crew was in tow. Standing on the highest vantage point, she strained to find a familiar face in the crowd the dissipated as rain began to fall. Moment after moment of heart-pounding searching finally revealed Nami's carrot-orange hair and what looked to be a rather large fish bouncing along behind her. Frowning at the sight, she looked beyond them, easily sighting the throng of white uniforms some distance behind them.

Akane clung to the mast, hoping against hope that they made it to the ship before the Marines could swarm them. She watched as much as she could see, feeling massively useless as the wind and rain pounded against her body. After another moment, she closed her eyes and fervently prayed to the gods of this world that everything work out.

Somehow.


	3. Forming Friendships

Zoro was laying on the rear deck of the ship, falling into the lethargy that preceded his naps, when he felt a sharp rapping on his skull. "Hey, what the…?" As he opened his eyes, the loud and harsh words faded into his throat when those brown eyes looked down at him. "Oh, Akane."

She nudged his side lightly with her foot. "Come on, Zoro. Scoot."

He grinned up at her, his eyes lazily drifted shut again. "I don't think so. I'm pretty comfortable right now."

Huffing softly, Akane shifted from foot to foot. "Fine, have it your way."

The lethargy began to settle over his brain again. "I will." In retrospect, the soft sound of the girl planting her feet should have been fair warning.

Her hands gripped his waist and he was suddenly in the air. Afraid that she was throwing him, his eyes snapped open just in to realize that she was settling him over her shoulder and he now had a distinctly clear view of her rear. Before he could even think to blush or argue about this treatment, he was moving again as she set him gently against the railing.

"What the hell was that?" he exclaimed as he scrambled to his feet. He gripped the railing and stared at her with accusing eyes. It was then that he noticed she was wearing a light blue training gi, similar to the ones he wore when he was still training with shinai.

Akane wiped her hands together, as if wiping away imaginary dust. "I told you to move," she informed him with a grin. Turning her back on him, she walked back to where he had been resting, moving to stand at the exact center of a rather large white circle.

Why hadn't he noticed that before?

There was a small solid circle with a dotted line connecting it to a larger solid outline of a circle. It had to be around two meters in diameter but Zoro didn't really get the significance of that. Which begs another seemingly random question: Why had she picked him up rather than rolling or shoving him? She had expended more energy that way.

So, he asked her, finally settling enough to sit back down.

"Look," Akane said, pointing down at her feet. She passed the heel of one foot over the dotted line, leaving a powdery smear behind. "It's chalk. If I hadn't picked you up, I would've had to redraw it."

"Geez," he murmured, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. "How strong are you?"

Akane began moving in a pattern that he recognized as tai chi, shifting a moment later to something that seemed to be both judo and kenpo. From her movements, he could tell she was trying to figure how to train on a ship. "Last I checked? Five hundred pounds. But that was a couple years ago."

Almost as if her answer were a cue, her speed increased marginally and her movements flowed more naturally in a form he recognized by one of their conversations. This was the Tendo-Ryuu, the school that only she of her father's three daughters had mastered. The questions that brimmed into his mind faded somewhat as he watched.

This form was concise and yet somehow as beautiful and flowing as tai chi. When she completely a partial turn, roughly forty-five degrees in his direction, he could see that her brown eyes were distant, concentrating on something that only she could see. As if reacting to a threat, she planted her rear foot in the area of the circle directly opposite him and completed a spinning roundhouse kick, almost perfect executed and doing something that made Zoro realize he had been lost in watching her.

Akane's foot caught Sanji on the chin, somehow managing to evade both the plate and glass that he was carrying.

As he went down, his items descended as well but being the great cook that the swordsman grudgingly admitted that he was, he never dropped the snack or the drink. "Akane-chan, why?"

Like snapping your fingers in front of the hypnotized, the girl came back to herself, even though she was still holding the position of her foot at a slightly upward angle and her torso parallel to the deck. Looking down, she frowned in irritation and straightened her body. "Damn it, Sanji!"

"Akane-chan," Sanji said weakly, his voice still somehow lilting in the singsong tone he used around the female sex. "I brought you a snack."

Zoro was amazed at how the irritation drifted away instantly and concern replaced it as she scrambled to the cook's side, careful to step over the chalk lines in the process. She moved the items in Sanji's hands to the deck, helping him into a sitting position, and probed delicately at the bruise formed on his jawline. "You know, this is really your own fault."

"Zoro was up here," Sanji whined softly.

Akane's lips curled slightly at some inner thought and poked with a little more effort at the injury. "He knew enough to stay still."

"But…"

She clucked her tongue softly at him. "What did you learn today, Sanji?"

The cook turned his face to the side, his expression downturned dramatically. "Don't disturb Akane-chan while she's practicing?" he queried in a small voice.

She grinned brightly and gave him a light kiss high on his cheek to avoid the bruise. "Good. Now go." With a light tap, she shoved him away from her training area.

Zoro laughed when Sanji literally floated back to the galley, sighing in that lovestruck way he had. "Akane-chan gave me a kiss," he singsonged happily.

"That made it worse, you know," the swordsman told Akane.

She shrugged and picked up the snack the cook had brought her, automatically offering Zoro half. Days of starvation flashed in his mind and he readily accepted it. "Sometimes it's better to let them have their fantasies. At least this way," she added, holding her glass up like proof, "I'm getting snacks out of it."

He laughed again, his mirth like a ringing bell. "We'll have you thinking like a pirate yet."

* * *

Akane looked over the expanse of the Lost Island, thinking over the past few days. Being with Luffy and his somewhat mismatched crew was nothing less than adventurous. It was almost like being at home, except without most of the hassle. It was wild and crazy and fun and best of all, there was no one insinuating or outright proclaiming that she wasn't skilled enough or strong enough or attractive enough or any number of the varied insults she had come to expect as part of daily life.

Shortly after her accidental assault on Sanji, Luffy had used his stretching ability to retrieve a small girl from death. The circling seagulls had proved they were near death. However, her reaction to the pirates had been similar to Akane's own and it had taken her a while to warm up to them. Their subsequent and purely incidental trip into the Calm Belt had been exciting. While most of the crew's reactions had range from alarmed to knee-shaking terror, Akane's response was somewhat off-kilter, for she had found herself to be somewhat gleeful. Oh yes, the Sea Kings were definitely dangerous but so were the forest animals of Ryugenzawa.

The weird Devil Fruit user and the Marine admiral aside, the entire thing made her grin. Witnessing the return of the dragons to a single island for their rebirth? It helped her to recognize how many things she'd experienced in her life that were unknowably rare. Many times, it was like she couldn't see the forest for the trees – she was always spent too much of her time chasing Ranma or arguing with him over undoubtedly small details to see how her world had become infected with achingly unique skill and beauty.

The old pain still echoed in her heart – the pain of the reality of who she was. But it was subdued for now, shadowed by the wonder and an altogether different ache. This pain… she was far more used to this pain.

"They never frightened you, did they?"

Her ears twitched as she recognized the voice as belonging to Usopp. Akane granted him a smile. "I guess not."

He sat next to her and looked out at the peaceful dragons, nursing the new one like mother hens. It was then that Akane remembered his aspiration: to be a brave warrior of the sea. "Why not?"

She looked at him, seeing the sadness in his eyes. After a moment of deliberation, she decided she'd tell him the story. "Where I'm from, there's this village called Ryugenzawa. Outside of the village, there runs a spring that makes the animals of the forest huge. As big as Sea Kings," she asserted, spreading her arms in a wide gesticulation.

"You're lying!" the marksman accused. His eyes were bright again with interest and laughter and Akane felt a rush of warmth. This was something she'd always been good at back in Nerima – cheering up her friends when they needed it.

"No lie," she told him, marking an X over her heart with her index finger. "When I first saw them, I was smaller than Apis. Anyway, the spring was making all the animals massive and it turned out the reason for that was the Orochi that slept at the bottom."

"An Orochi?" Usopp exclaimed, holding his hand to his chest and his eyes popped wide open. After the very dramatic moment passed, he continued with "But it was sleeping, right?"

Akane laughed delightedly and shook her index finger in a 'naughty, naughty' gesture. "No jumping to the end. Okay, when I wandered into the forest when I was little, a boy saved me from a giant platypus. It was going to eat me!" She curled her hands and bared her teeth in a furious mock-growl.

"No!" Usopp laughed.

She giggled at his wide-eyed, attentive posture and continued. "What I didn't know is he'd taken a hit and after that, was kind of riding the fence between life and death. His grandfather was constantly giving him the Water of Life so he'd be healthy enough to protect the villagers from the forest animals. He'd given me the mongoose horn to protect me."

"Mongooses don't have horns," he told her matter-of-factly.

"Horned mongooses do," she fired back at him. "What we didn't know was that the horn was for laying the Orochi to sleep."

Usopp gasped. "It woke up."

She smirked. "As dragons do. It slept at the bottom of the spring and woke up every thousand years. After almost getting eaten by it a few times, I finally thought to blow the horn." She held up her hand and waved it as if it were a wilting weed and made a splashing sound. "Bam! Orochi vanquished."

Usopp grinned at her. "So, dragons don't scare you and you're an awesome fighter."

"How would you know that?" she asked curiously.

He looked in a different direction and she could see Zoro, a too-perfect silhouette against the horizon. The swordsman's attention was directed in the general direction of the baby dragon. "Zoro might have said something."

Akane looked Usopp in the eye, smiling her best warm and understanding smile. "Feel better?" After he nodded, she asked another question. "What were you thinking about?"

He shifted his gaze back to the dragons and Akane was glad to see that sadness was replaced with a thin sort of wistfulness. "My mom."

"She died?"

It was Usopp's turn to ask. "How would you know that?"

Her smile slowly dripped away as she opened her heart to the familiar ache of missing a mother whose face she couldn't no longer clearly remember. "Mine too. She was sick for a while and then she was gone. I miss her."

"Me too." Usopp sighed. After a long moment, he finally stood and held a hand out to help Akane to her feet. "To our next adventure, huh?"

"Definitely."


	4. Proof of Worth

**A/N: Since tuatara asked, I'd say that it's been roughly 2 weeks since Akane showed up in the One Piece world. I apologize again for the jumping and skipping. This part takes place while they're on Whiskey Peak, for reference. After the next chapter, the jumping around will stop. Thanks for the reviews!**

* * *

Akane looked on curiously from her vantage point right next to the tangerine trees as Miss Wednesday and Mister Nine hopped off the side of the ship. Not only had their headlong rush into the Grand Line via the Reverse Mountain and their subsequent encounter with Laboon been quite interesting, this new situation and the way they ejected themselves just before Whiskey Peak was just odd.

And damned suspicious, to boot.

She turned around and looked at Zoro, who she had deducted was far and away the calmest person on the boat. He arched an eyebrow and shrugged back, notifying her that he didn't have an opinion per se, right as they sailed into a welcoming party. Akane glanced at the only other person that might see how wrong this was and she wasn't disappointed: Nami's eyes were narrowed before she suddenly set a blank expression over her face.

The thing was, Akane knew what she couldn't do and she definitely could not pretend to party in front of those deceiving faces. She would be the first to admit that she wasn't always the best judge of character but it was almost as if she could see the ugliness hiding behind manic smiles and confetti. There was something magnificently wrong here…

But she couldn't seem to put her finger on it.

As he passed her, Zoro touched her arm lightly. "Akane, you coming?"

Chilling foreboding settled over her heart like a block of ice at his words. They reminded her of what she had said to Makoto not an hour before she'd disappeared to this world. Quick to answer the swordsman, she told him, "I'm gonna hang back, keep an eye on the ship."

He nodded once solemnly and continued on his way. Akane shifted slightly to allow the small grove to hide her from the town's onlookers, desperately try to analyze the feelings that swirled in her mind. Why didn't her mind grow dark with suspicion when she thought back to Makoto? More importantly, what exactly was she planning to do with this situation?

The grove gave Akane adequate cover while the townspeople filtered away from the docks. Plucking a fruit from one of the trees, she finally moved out into the open, squinting at the sun. She thought about waiting for twilight, for the darkness to conceal her movement.

_But if my thinking is right,_ she mused as she bit into the tangerine_, then the time of day won't matter much._ And what kind of people would be glad to see pirates anyway?

Bounty hunters.

Shaking her head of the preposterous thought, Akane hopped over the railing and landed on the pier, bending at the knees to absorb the shock. Looking around, she realized the dissipation of the crowd made Whiskey Peak seem a bit like a ghost town. She was sure they'd all convened in one place and knowing her new friends and this strange world as she did, the nearest tavern was the best place to start.

Being stealthy in this environment wasn't very difficult – she'd learned the art of blending early – and what grace she had lacked in former years had disappeared with her renewed dedication to the Art. She edged in a wide circle to a window on the side of the building and looking inside. What she saw caused her face twist ruefully and almost painfully.

All of the crew was spread across the room, attending to by a lot of people and being plied with whatever served their own brand of gluttony. Luffy was, as a matter of course, eating more food than she could stomach in a week, Sanji was surrounded by beautiful women and the dazed blush he wore indicated that he was in his form of heaven, and Usopp was standing in the middle of a circle of people, grinning widely and often waving his arms about in wide gestures. Nami and Zoro were the only one not partaking overtly – Zoro looked two minutes from dropping into a nap and Nami surreptitiously surveyed her surroundings. All in all, Akane still felt so separate from them.

Though she could feel the homesickness gripping her heart, she forced back the tears for later and continued her search. It didn't take very long, which was both disappointing and disconcerting. A slightly desolate-looking building that looked like a treasury house stood quietly less than half a kilometer from the tavern but the sign above the door didn't hold the coinpurse that was the usual symbol of treasury. Upon closing in on the building, Akane could see that the symbol was a skull over two cutlasses with large purple wings.

Frowning slightly at the image, she pushed experimentally at the door, which creaked softly as it moved. She slipped inside as soon as there was enough room and let the door drift back to its initial position. Despite its outward appearance, the inside of the building nearly sparkled with cleanliness and seemed well-used. One wall immediately caught the eye – it was covered from ceiling to baseboard with Wanted posters and Akane spotted Luffy's own at thirty million Beli after a moment.

She would ask him how he deserved that if she thought he had the slightest idea.

Turning in another direction, Akane noticed a desk and a bookshelf. Closer inspection revealed that the shelving held mostly logbooks with a few obscure historical titles that seemed to have little to do with anything. A sidelong glance helped her to notice an open logbook on the desk and she hurried to read it. Much of the last page held numbers with the Beli symbol across from names, similar to a ledger, but there was also simple fragmented sentences that indicated it as a log. Most of the last page seemed insignificant with numbers and code words until she reached the last entry. Though the ink was dry, which she tested by pressing her middle and index fingers into the scrawl, the markings seemed new enough to assume that it had been written within the last hour or so.

'Ms. W & Mr. 9 return, mission fail. Led Straw Hat Luffy & crew into trap. Bounty of 30 mil. Mr. 0 likely agitated but appeased.'

The frown returned, deep enough to cause her eyes to narrow. She flicked her gaze to the posters again and then back to the logbook. Leaning over the desk, she thumbed through the book, swimming the log entries quickly. Most of them involved reports of drawing a pirate crew in a honey trap and Akane had a sinking feeling that she had witnessed her friends slowly succumbing to the spider's web.

The mixed metaphor aside, the martial artist instantly realized they were in a very sticky situation. "Bounty hunters, after all," she murmured softly, quickly crossing the room to open the door. However, unlike her entrance, her panic and sense of urgency caused her to jerk open the door too quickly, making the hinges squeal angrily.

Wincing at the sound, Akane stepped outside and cursed herself for not keeping her head. Now she was surrounded on all sides, roughly twenty men closing in on her. Perhaps someone had been watching the ship, after all, or maybe her stealth was still lacking.

"Stowaway?" one of the men asked another.

The other shook his head immediately. "Has to be one of the crew."

"Sneaky," yet another chided. "Can't let the little bird tell her friends."

"Kill or capture?"

A particularly bulky man grinned, silver teeth glinting from his rear molars. "Kill. The one we want is down for the count. The rest are as good as dead."

Pressing her lips together, Akane swallowed past a dry spot in her throat. This was her moment to prove that she was still useful – to herself if to no one else – and that she didn't need someone else to save her. She didn't need Ranma to survive, she reminded herself as she kicked off her shoes. (Heels, though small, could still minimize her kicks.)

She dug the heels of her now bare feet into the ground and moved into a defensive state, daring them to bring their worst with a movement of her hands. The partial trance state that she sank into would maximize the effect of her senses, which were mostly spot-on even before Ranma had entered her life, but she knew it wouldn't stop the voices that could cause her to hesitate.

It was a trade-off.

_The one thing about this school, Akane, is that every punch and kick must be perfect and have enough strength to put down a man many times your size,_ her father's whisper reminded her. _Speed is secondary to accuracy._

She could tell that they had somehow decided to attack her one-on-one when one man darted forward. Instantly, she committed a large amount of strength to shoving the heel of her palm into the man's nose, breaking it and driving shards of whatever had come apart into the man's brain. The force of the blow forced him into the air and back about two meters, where he dropped to the ground and bled profusely. Akane wasn't sure if he was still alive and taking in the looks of the men the second they decided to swarm her, she couldn't afford to care.

This was nothing like the Hentai Horde; these men were full of hatred and greed and struck to kill. However, Akane was very efficient with this school, neutralizing three men before she had to block the first swing. Most of the hits she rebuffed and countered but some found openings, a hard hit to her ribs and a solid punch to the side of her face. An additional problem was their weapons but few of them had the presence of mind to use them; one opponent managed a shallow cut on her cheekbone dangerously close to the eye but that was all. Her ability to dodge was trained reflex built on instinct, better even when it was something that could cause pain.

By the time she paused for a breath, all twenty were on the ground, unconscious or dead. She wasn't how much of a hit they could take and didn't want to risk her own safety on looting them. Besides that, their weapons were mostly daggers and likely not that great quality at that; it wasn't even worth the effort.

As such, she was beginning to feel the effect of her injuries and just wanted to lay down on something soft. Carefully picking her way across bodies that could at any moment come back to life, Akane moved back toward the tavern to survey her friends' current situation after retrieving her shoes. She wasn't so much surprised as vaguely agitated when an arm from the circle of otherwise injured and unmoving flesh caught her ankle. She glared at the face of one of her opponents.

"Who…" He coughed and blood from an internal injury coated his lips. "Who are you?"

"Tendo Akane," she answered simply. Rearing her foot back, she kicked sharply enough to send him back into the darkness but held back most of her strength. She didn't need to kill him.

Just outside of the tavern lay more bodies of men than she could count. Arching an eyebrow at the scene, she wondered who had done it: Luffy? Zoro? Sanji? Any one of them was capable of this. She urged one of them awake by pressing gently on the edge of a wound. She pasted her most caring expression on her face and asked, "Who did this?"

The man managed "Roronoa… Zoro" before falling back into unconsciousness.

Lips curling into a smile, she crept over to the tavern, peering through a window. Luffy was moving around and it looked like Sanji and Usopp were beginning to awaken. Though she was slightly alarmed to realize that they had fallen victim to either their own sleep patterns or something that sedated them, her initial panic had subsided and she felt rather positive about their odds.

Even if the bounty hunters didn't know it.

* * *

Miss Wednesday was Princess Vivi of Alabasta.

If Akane hadn't been used to the abrupt changes from her life in Nerima, this might have been mightily suspicious. As it was, her mind was brimming enough with thoughts that she couldn't sleep, though most of the crew had gone to sleep once they found a place far enough from Whiskey Peak to anchor. Nami had given Akane a quick rundown on what had occurred, Beli signs literally twirling in her eyes, and no one had a clue that she'd ever been off the ship.

Leaning over the railing of the middle deck, she sighed and looked into the water, watching the reflection of the stars wave on the surface. Her homesickness had come back in force and she idly wondered how everyone was doing in her absence. Were they forgetting her as easily as she seemed to be forgetting them?

And that's what the real problem was, wasn't it? She was only so homesick because she was so guilty. After all, even with her abilities brimming to match that of the Amazons, she was nothing and nobody there, sometimes less than that.

"You're thinking deep thoughts," someone accused from just behind her.

Akane whirled, her body moved into instant defense and the surprise causing the tears in her eyes to fall. As soon as she identified the someone, she relaxed. "Luffy, hi. I thought everyone was asleep."

He laughed, putting a hand on the back of his head. "Me too. I was hungry." He paused when his stomach echoed the sentiment with a loud growl. "But then I remembered about that… thing Sanji has."

Even as the light wind dried the tears to her cheek, she grinned back at him. "The Luffy Trap?" she prompted.

"Yeah, that!" Then his face became serious, or at least a mockery of serious. "You know how to get around it?"

"I might have a way," she informed him mysteriously.

Beaming happily, Luffy grabbed Akane's hand and dragged her into the galley. "Come on. Food, food, food!"

Giggling, she turned away from the captain and pulled a key on a string from under her shirt. When Sanji realized how often she was awake in the middle of the night, he gave her a key to trigger the trap prematurely so that she could retrieve what she wanted from the fridge. As she placed the key into the secret mechanism that the cook kept out of sight, the trap snapped and Akane stepped over it to retrieve some of the snacks that Sanji had been hiding from the boys, tucking her key back in its place.

"Wow!" Luffy exclaimed. "How did you do that?"

"Magic," she answered automatically. He grinned at her and his arm stretched to snatch one of the many snacks – some gourmet thing that Sanji made special for the girls – on the plate in her hand.

"What were you thinking about?" he asked around the food in his mouth. Akane had thought ahead enough to grab two snacks and pushed the rest over to him.

As his antics had distracted her from her earlier thoughts, she cocked her head at him. "What do you mean?"

"You were crying," he answered simply.

"Oh. I—I was thinking about home."

Luffy's brow furrowed slightly. "Shouldn't that make you happy?"

"It should," she agreed. "But it doesn't." She sighed. "It makes me feel kind of… empty."

"Why?"

Akane looked at the rubberman in front of her, his open face so guileless and dependable. "I don't think I was living there, not really. I was just existing, I guess, arguing with my fiancé and moving through every day."

"You were getting married?" Luffy's face lit up and Akane was pretty sure he was thinking about reception food.

"Arranged marriage," she answered. "Not fun."

"Oh." Luffy looked down at his lap. "You don't seem like the kind of person that would put up with that."

"It was for the dojo," she answered simply and vaguely. "I might have loved him once or maybe I just wanted him to notice me. Not much chance of that."

The captain frowned. "Do you want to go home?" he asked softly. She could hear the disappointment there and instantly knew he would do his best to find a way if she wanted.

But the time that she would have wanted that was long past. She had real friends here and no one called her slow or uncute or stupid. There wasn't an expectation to somehow be both feminine and stronger than a dojo destroyer. There weren't blue eyes that could tear her soul to pieces with the right combination of words.

"No," she told him finally. "This world is different and I don't know what to dream yet but it's fun and new and I want to see everything."

"Yes!" With a quick stretch into the air, Akane found that Luffy was suddenly sitting next to her. "Besides, you're nakama. You should be with us. Always!"

With an internal click, she felt the final sense of belonging slide into place.


	5. Catching Colds and Captives

**A/N: I was actually thinking about writing interludes to show what was going on in Nerima. However, when I tried, my muse stopped me and shook her head. Le sigh. For those who want to know what's going on with Ranma and the rest, I may write said interludes in the future. Also, this chapter takes place while the crew's on Drum island when Nami's sick with that prehistoric bug thing.**

* * *

Akane hurriedly pawed through her clothing as the temperature dropped rapidly, searching for the jacket she'd purchased in Loguetown. What's more, she could almost feel herself catching a cold from the environment. She was relatively sure she wasn't catching whatever it was Nami had – it didn't act like any contagious disease she'd ever seen.

She had been distracted by her shift of watching Nami that she had paid much attention to her surroundings. It wasn't until Luffy rushed in to inform the navigator's unconscious form that they'd found an island that she even began to feel a chill. Knowing it might be some time before they actually reached land, Akane had ignored the way her limbs shook, the muscles vibrating hard enough to snap bone, and continued to watch over her.

The one thing she managed to do about her own condition was request Sanji to prepare a stewpot full of broth. He didn't find it out of the ordinary because she'd been ordering it of him every few hours to be sure that Nami was given a suitable amount of fluids to keep her immune system up. It was one thing she had learned from Doctor Tofu: if you didn't have the cure on hand, pumping the body full of fluids was the best alternative.

Shrugging into a dark coat, Akane finally stepped out into the open, seeing the winter island for herself. Despite the new level of cold that blasted her, the scene reminded her how much she loved snow. It made everything look clean and new and she idly hoped that symbolically meant they would find a doctor for Nami. She didn't let it slip to anyone but her condition was severe and her fever kept slowly but steadily mounting.

Forcing hopefulness into her face, she smiled and went into the galley, the expression more genuine when she saw the pot was sitting on the stovetop over a low fire. She fetched a cup and ladled the broth into it, letting the warmth seep into her hand. A sip put that warmth into her body, helping the warming process at her core. This was the best way she could make herself feel better.

Not wanting to coop herself up in another small room after watching over Nami for so long, Akane stepped back out onto the deck. The chill of the air was less threatening now that she had the buffer of warmth both in and around her. She was in the process of sliding into a sitting position when it happened.

She sneezed.

And not just a run-of-the-mill sneeze. It was a sneeze that made your throat feel stripped raw and forced your body to the ground. More importantly, it forced her reflex of covering her mouth and nose with cupped hand. The ceramic mug that held the broth was sacrificed, crashing to the hard wood of the deck and shattering.

"Damn it," she murmured, twisting her body slightly so that she was on her knees. She began to carefully pick up the ceramic shards, thinking of how often the guys would run around barefoot.

The loud thumping of rapid footsteps startled her, causing her to drop the shards. She jerked her head up to see Zoro, who was shirtless and – as luck would have it – barefoot as well. "Akane?"

She frowned at him, wondering why he was only wearing pants. It took a long moment, as most of her brainpower was used up in rejecting and combating the cold hindering her immune system, but she finally remembered he'd said something recently about… endurance training? "Stop," she warned him. "I broke my mug."

The swordsman looked down and took a step back when he noted the shards that now littered the deck. Even as Akane retrieved the shards methodically – first the large pieces so that the smaller ones would be easier to hold – she could feel his eyes boring into her. "You don't look so good."

She laughed mirthlessly. "I don't feel so hot either." Standing, she took the shards back into the galley to discard them properly. "I hope Sanji's not gonna be mad," she mused softly.

"I don't think he's capable," Zoro answered, sounding highly amused. He sat down at the table and watched passively as she threw away the useless mug shards and prepared herself another mug of broth. "Hey, I thought that was for Nami."

Akane held a finger to her lips in a 'hush' gesture and took a careful sip out of the new mug. "I'm pretty sure I'm sick. I didn't want to worry anyone."

The swordsman sat up straight and was about to stand. "Do you need a doctor too?" Now he actually stood. "I need to take you to a doctor. Right?"

She couldn't help but giggle and shake her head. "You're not good with sick people, huh?"

Zoro frowned down at her. "No," he answered simply. She could see that under the blank mask he was unnerved by her observation. Perhaps not many people tried to see below the surface with him.

"I just need this." She stopped to gesture at the mug in her hands. "And a bit of a nap." Her eyes twinkled as she smirked at him. "You should know, it cures all ills."

The concern in his eyes didn't disappear but he appeared to accept her answer. "Okay, as long as you're sure…"

She made a shooing gesture at him. "I'm sure. I get like this when it gets cold. I'm fine." She gave him a broad grin. "Go train."

When the door shut with a soft click behind Zoro, Akane finally released a sigh. She'd forgotten how much energy it took to put on a happy face when she really felt like crap. After draining her mug of its contents, she sprawled out on one of the benches for that much-needed nap. Maybe she'd feel better once she woke up again.

It wasn't until a couple hours later when that happened. The feeling of hands on her jerked her awake but an effective chokehold brought her back down to the darkness of unconsciousness immediately.

* * *

Nico Robin, currently most known as Miss All-Sunday, trailed around the Straw Hats' ship with little hurry in her step. If the ship survived Little Garden well enough to proceed to this next island, which was the former kingdom of Drum if her information was correct, there was little doubt that the crew had as well. However, there was still the question of the number and in what state.

There was the other flaw in their information regarding the Straw Hats. Though Crocodile had already sent Mister Two to take care of Mister Three and Miss Goldenweek for their lapse, he had requested that she confirm either the eradication of the Straw Hats or Mister Two's magnificent failure in any respect. Additionally, her advanced listening skill had revealed that the person that had spoken to Crocodile mere days ago on Mister Three's Den Den Mushi wasn't actually Mister Three. Robin had not relayed that information to Crocodile.

Journeying into Drum had its own drawbacks and while her ability to blend into any atmosphere was adequate, the benefit to such a risk was minimal enough to make the need negligible. A quick investigation of the lower deck proved to give her only empty rooms and the open deck was equally abandoned. However, her final search into the galley had provided fruit.

Using her Devil's Fruit ability, the ability to bloom a given body part from any surface, she ensured that the girl wasn't conscious long enough to get her bearings. Once she went limp again, Robin walked over to her and took in her features: small adequately-proportioned body, short black hair. This could quite easily be…

A soft ringing broke through Robin's train of thought and she sighed. She pulled the Baby Den Den Mushi out of her pocket and glared into the distance before schooling her voice and emotions. "Yes, Mister Zero?"

"Miss All-Sunday, I await your report." Though his voice sounded like warm honey, she could hear the clipped edges and knew that the proximity of his endgame was causing him to become impatient.

"I found the ship that belongs to the Straw Hat crew docked at the island kingdom of Drum. I only found one person on board. I subdued her immediately."

"Her?" he echoed with surprise. "The redhead?"

"Negative. I believe she is Tendo Akane, the one some of the survivors of Whiskey Peak spoke of." Remembering her initial struggles, Robin added, "She is quite strong."

"Bring her," he ordered.

Robin frowned at the snaillike object in her hand, breaking the strict blankness of emotion she conveyed almost all the time. "Are you sure?" Her voice was heavy enough with concern that Crocodile would notice but she couldn't help it – the girl looked so small and young.

"Worried for her, Miss All-Sunday? You shouldn't waste the energy. I merely intend to… test her loyalty," he told her silkily.

Closing her eyes, she forced the barriers back into place. "Of course, Mister Zero," she conceded. In the next moment, there was a faint click and she stowed the Baby Den Den Mushi back into her jacket. She pulled the girl into a sitting position and used her ability to wrap restraining arms around her torso.

With that done, she created a line of pairs of arms to move her new captive from the galley to her turtle, her personal preference of moving around in this section of the Grand Line. As she urged the animal in the direction of Alabasta, she turned dark eyes on the unconscious girl.

"I hope your mind is as strong as your body," she whispered softly.


	6. Important Delivery

**A/N: Okay, official warning: the story might be a little dark (but not overly) for the next few chapters or so.**

* * *

Akane returned to consciousness slowly. It was always like that when she was forced into the black. She yawned and wriggled in an attempt to stretch but found the movement to be hindered. It felt like someone had glued her arms to her sides.

Her eyes snapping open, she suddenly remembered the feeling of hands.

"Good. You're awake."

Struggling into a sitting position, Akane noted the woman in front of her. She looked very slender and was probably very tall when she stood and sported dark blue eyes and shiny black hair. She seemed to favor purple, as her outfit consisted of a lace-up top and fringed skirt of the color as well as a cowboy hat and boots of the same. Her face was blank and emotionless and startled Akane a bit.

"Who are you?" the younger girl asked softly.

The woman smiled just a bit but it didn't do anything to calm Akane's nerves. In fact, it did quite the opposite. "Though etiquette dictates that one should put forth their own name first, I suppose I am the one at fault here. I am Nico Robin, though I am more currently known as Miss All-Sunday."

"Baroque Works," Akane murmured under her breath. She knew that instantly with the code name but it took her another second to remember the other crucial part of Robin's name. "You're Crocodile's partner," she accused.

"That I am," Robin conceded with a slight inclination of her head. "He will not be pleased that you know his true identity. It means that your crew survived Little Garden and the clutches of Mister Three and Miss Goldenweek."

"The ship's location could have given that away," Akane argued. She twisted hard once, experimentally to see if she could free herself of the arms that bound her. Even as she felt the lightheadedness that followed the actions, it occurred to her that either this woman was stronger than she looked or the cold was hitting her much harder than usual.

"Not definitively," the woman countered. She seemed slightly amused at Akane's efforts, which only caused her anger to flare. However, she knew better than to try – the state of her own health was clearly rendering most of her usual strength quite useless.

Akane sneezed suddenly with enough force to pitch herself, her shoulder bouncing harmlessly off the inflated edge of the litter atop the turtle shell. Wait, turtle shell? She wriggled herself upward as well as she was able and finally took in her surroundings. Either she was hallucinating or they were riding a rather large turtle at a swift clip.

The woman gently maneuvered Akane back into her original position. The girl noted that Robin was arranging her on the broad seat and the mystery woman herself took up a perch on the edge of the litter. "You're sick," she remarked stoically.

Akane suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. "Where are you taking me?"

"Alabasta," she answered simply. "To Mister Zero."

The teenager remembered suddenly Vivi's fear of the pirate. He was Shichibukai, which was somewhat synonymous to invincible in the blue-haired princess's mind. To the public eye, he was a government dog but his involvement with Baroque Works, as the leader and mastermind, suggested something more dastardly at work. "Why?" she asked finally. "Why not just kill me and be done with it?"

Robin's blue eyes gazed into Akane's brown ones, searching for something. "You have drawn his interest."

"How?"

"Taking down twenty bounty hunters of this organization and leaving even one alive is a mistake," Robin informed her. "One of those men reported your name and description. I am under the impression that he has plans for you."

That was never a good sign, Akane knew. She had been at the mercy of princes and creatures so grotesque that 'demon' was the best descriptor but this was a world of pirates. The way Robin spoke, it implied that torture was a very definite future for her. And maybe not only that… If there were plans for her, she was sure this man would find a way to break her or control her.

It caused a shiver to run down her spine. "What am I going to do?" she murmured to herself.

"Lie," Robin said firmly. "You must lie to Crocodile. If there will be any chance of your crew to rescue you, you must never tell him that the crew still lives."

Akane looked the woman in the eye and yet saw nothing reflected back. "Why do you care?"

"He must be stopped," the woman proclaimed with enough conviction in her voice that Akane could see Luffy's smiling face in her mind's eye. "If your captain survived Little Garden and both the onslaught of the Mister Five and Mister Three teams, then there might be the smallest chance that he can stop him."

"Again, why? If you don't like what he's doing, why are you helping him? And why don't you stop him yourself?"

Robin's face tilted downward and Akane could vaguely see shame in the lines of her body. "I'm not strong enough. I'm only helping in order to access the poneglyph in Alubarna. It's my last lead to find the True History."

Akane sat back in the chair, her mind swirling alternately with the information and its attendant implications and the lightheadedness that threatened to overwhelm her. "I can't let him know that, either, I guess." Robin nodded silently. "And Crocodile is very powerful and I will be subject to his every whim until… whenever," she concluded with a sigh.

Robin sighed and Akane could tell that she was beginning to regret having told her anything. After all, could she be trusted? Wouldn't it be easier to inform Crocodile as soon as she saw him and possibly avoid future torture sessions in the future? Besides that, could the woman's own motives be trusted? For all that Akane knew, it was all a massive fallacy.

Pressing her lips together, Akane decided, nodding her head in a fashion that closely resembled her friend and captain. Whether or not this Robin woman should be trusted, she was deciding to trust her. "I won't tell him anything, no matter what he does to me. I promise."

Besides, it didn't look like she had a choice.

* * *

Akane sat in the darkness, wondering how much time had passed. It couldn't have been much more than a few hours since they'd arrived at Rainbase, where Robin had passed her off to a flunky and said minion had tossed her into this room. She'd had time to think and she wasn't completely sure that was a good thing.

This had to be the initial torture – sensory deprivation of a sort.

It reminded her of that dark place and of Jusendo. Death was not fun and even though a year had passed, she still favored sleeping in the daytime if she could manage it. Even worse, the deep black brought into focus how she still failed as a martial artist. After all, if it had been Ranma and Ryoga in this situation, they might have been able to use their ki control to create some light.

Thinking on her own death, past and impending, brought her mind back to what had occurred at Whiskey Peak. (Had it been as little as a week ago?) She had been avoiding the very thought of it – it was amazing what you could just not think about – but she had used lethal force. In all the strikes committed out of anger in Nerima, she had never completed a killing blow. But now… now she had blood on her hands.

_Kami-sama, forgive me,_ she pleaded internally even she was experienced two brief flashed of memory. _{Standing on the rear deck of Going Merry, Zoro grinned as he said, "We need to be strong to survive."/ Her father's eyes glinted passionately as he informed her of the most important part of the Art and, more specifically, why his school of fighting could become quite lethal. "You must commit to your actions and never regret them. Regret is the seed of hesitation and a martial artist must never falter."}_

Bracing against the faint chill of the room, something her body currently perceived as much colder than the reality, she stood and removed her jacket, tossing it to the side for the moment. She already knew that the floor was actually packed sand, which had to be of some importance that she didn't know yet. Taking a few steps to the nearest wall, she pressed an ear and both hands to the flat surface. Just beneath a layer of stone, she felt energy pulsing and humming like waves crashing. She took a step to the left and listened again – the sound and sensation of energy faded somewhat. Another step and it returned.

Akane slid her hands down the wall and pulled her ear away, looking at the placement of her hands. Bars? A part of her, the part that took over in her trance states and could sense danger before it arrived, answered. _Yes, prison bars._

That didn't bode well. What was this mysterious stuff beneath the ordinary stone? What significance did it hold? And why did it cause her inner senses to alarm with coming danger?

A square of light appeared on the wall and Akane turned, instantly sliding into the comfortable pose of a fighting stance. Even before her eyes adjusted to the change, she realized this was the reason for the alarm of danger that rushed on her from all sides. She did not feel better when she could finally see the features of the newcomer.

Even as the door closed behind him, light erupted in the room, probably from an external mechanism. He was tall and broad, though that alone would not have bothered the smaller girl. He also sported a thin scar across his face and a golden hook on his left hand. It was the deadliest Captain Hook she'd ever seen. Beneath the surface, she could sense utter confidence and murky darkness.

His broad, toothy grin did not help the situation.

So, this was Crocodile, her battle-ready senses mused. She'd taken down bigger men than this. Be strong, Akane reminded herself. Be strong enough to survive whatever this man may do to you. She watched him sharply as he moved leisurely in her direction, looking to possible openings. Oddly enough, there were many.

"You are Tendo Akane?" He laughed in a way that grated against both her nerves and her pride. "Ah, but they do say that powerful things can come in small packages. Tell me, Akane… do you believe you can best me?"

Her brown eyes watched him closely. There! Perfect shot in the central abdomen – it should interrupt his breathing at the very least. She launched herself forward with enough force to drag a master sumo wrestler to his back. It would be an understatement to say she was surprised when she flew through him, though she was present-minded enough to see that he broke apart into sand.

"My, but you are a feisty one." She didn't allow the pain to show on her face when he grabbed a handful of her hair and lifted her up to his eye level. "You may be of some use to me but I feel you need to be shown who truly had power in this place."

Weakness suddenly settled over Akane like a blanket. It was achingly slow and her mind was slow to pick up the pace. This was wrong, this rapid loss of strength – he was doing something to her. She had no doubts about that.

It soon stopped but it was the longest and most confusing thirty seconds of her life. As soon as she was able to force the words past what she recognized as a parched mouth, she asked, "What… did you do to me?"

He tilted his hand slightly backward in order to present her with a condescending smirk. "I have drained you of your moisture but not enough to kill you. That wouldn't do at all, would it? Not if you are to become my tool. But, dear Akane, that is not all that I can do to you."

If she had thought the feeling of him draining water from her very body was excruciatingly long, she was proved very wrong in the next hour. Mere moments felt like days as she was "allowed to witness" the magnitude of his abilities. Maybe if she hadn't been so sick by this time… But if wishes were horses, Akane knew, we would all have a ride.

First, there was the miniature sandstorm centralized only on her. She had endured deserts before but she found out just how painful sand whipping against your face, arms and legs could be without the proper attire or cover. Though no blood was drawn, welts raised on the skin in several locations.

This pain was endured without more than an errant whimper.

Next came the sand saber, an edged weapon formed completely of sand. Even though she expected it to crumble at the merest urging, the feel of it against her skin was the same as the sharpest katana. Zoro's face flashed in her mind even as Crocodile circled her with that grin and words to which she no longer listened. He reopened the mostly healed wound on her upper cheek, smiling wider as she bled. Continuously nicking her here and there, on her neck and her face but mostly on her arms and legs, he began to laugh at the sight even as she began to feel as if she was covered in nothing but blood.

Her only reaction was a grimace of pain when the sandsword touched her face, when Zoro's face briefly replaced this villain's.

The last torture was akin to Chinese water torture, or waterboarding, but with sand. Using his hand, he blasted her face in staggered bursts. By this time, she had trouble focusing on his face and as such, did not see the strain written there. The pain of this torture was enough that tears of pain streaked down her face, causing the sand to cling there. The salt and sand irritated many of the smaller cuts along her face but she couldn't for the life of her stop the tears.

After what seemed an eternity, he stopped and shoved her to the ground with the rounded edge of his hook. She lay there, watching helplessly as he left and darkness settled on her world again. Not wanting to think on the events of this horrible day, she forced herself to roll onto her back and run through katas in her mind's eye.

Sleep was long coming but Akane managed to crawl over to the corner where her jacket had landed. Though it would have been better on her wounds, she laid it over the top of her. After all, wounds would heal but a cold could easily become pneumonia. But sleep she did, her body holding itself achingly still and her dreams recapturing the darkness of that death-place for the first time in six months.

* * *

**A/N the second: Okay, to ward off possible inquiries: yes, the room is barred with Kairoseki, the Sea Stone that arbitrarily weakens and/or blocks Devil Fruit abilities; and as for Crocodile's use of his abilities in this room, I'm taking artistic license while trying to show that it does put strain on him. Also, thanks to everyone for the reviews! Feedback is my lifeblood!**


	7. Effects of Loss

Another day passed in Alabasta and Robin's concern grew as the sun traveled through the sky. The night before, she knew, was a show of power. It was almost not worth mentioning in Crocodile's mind. But today…

Today was for pain and interrogation. She had never personally been under the knife, so to speak, but she knew the Shichibukai's mind and had witnessed his methods a few times prior. He was cruel and cold-hearted and Robin wasn't sure the girl in her current state could withstand it all. She certainly wouldn't be able.

Robin's own survival was extremely reliant on escape-and-evade tactics.

Crocodile maintained three sessions with Akane: one hour in the morning, three in the afternoon, and two hours that ended just as the sun set. Robin may have been sitting calmly in his main room but she was listening intently, a line of four pairs of ears set on the outside of the door to his Room of Pain, as the door was the only part of it that was not lined with Kairoseki. The proximity of the Sea Stone made this difficult enough as it was.

The archaeologist knew that the day had been long for Akane. If not for her sickness, something of which she had informed him after last night's power show, it would have been that much worse. As it was, the girl had been quiet for the morning and early afternoon tortures, which had been respectively sand-based torture and then traditional torture with physical tools. Quiet of coherent noise, at least; there had been many instances where the pain had obviously become too much and she had released strangled screams. It wasn't until now that Robin truly realized what she had been doing.

Akane had had a plan, after all, and it made the woman realize that she was much stronger than she looked.

With this man, especially if his attention was solely on you, you couldn't stop the tears or the screams. That was inevitable. Akane seemed to have known this and planned around it somehow, making Robin wonder idly if she had undergone any such treatment before. Finally, after tension had been building between Robin's mounting fear and concern and Crocodile's rapidly dwindling patience, she had broken down. Robin had no doubts that it was a true breakdown for her body but her mind was still in control of her mouth.

What Crocodile likely didn't realize is that, throughout the day, he had been giving Akane hints about how he envisioned the situation, meaning that her lies were seamless. She had been watching the ship on Little Garden and had become concerned when they didn't return at nightfall, she posited to the man. There had been a ghastly wax… thing and Luffy wasn't there. After some searching, she had found him, bloody and definitely incapacitated within an odd wax structure. She had apparently been too shaken to find out if he was alive.

Why had she been at Drum? Oh, that was the name of the place? She was sick enough to warrant a doctor – she had only intended to take a nap long enough to gather some strength and then find someone to help on the winter island. Had Miss All-Sunday told her anything of Baroque Works' ultimate goal or her own intentions? No, she had been as quiet as the grave.

It may have shown how truly dense Crocodile was to accept these answers so readily. However, even knowing the truth, Robin almost believed the girl herself. Something about her, she made all of the lies completely true – maybe it was because her tears and sorrow were real or maybe she was just a really good actress.

Hearing Crocodile's prideful remarks and Akane's thump to the ground, Robin allowed the ears to dissipate into petals that in turn faded into the air. She knew that Crocodile was much smarter than he seemed but with the endgame almost in sight, maybe he needed to believe that no wrenches were being thrown his elegant plan. Worry ate at her as her mind went over everything again and again, trying to find a misstep anywhere, but her outer visage was as neutral and aloof as it always had been.

"Miss All-Sunday," he greeted nonchalantly as he entered the room. Robin's sharp eye caught the strain in his eyes and the thin sheen of sweat that layered his forehead. While she didn't want to think that way, Akane may serve as a good enough distraction to keep him weak for the foreseeable future.

"Mister Zero?" she answered, lilting her voice very slightly at the end. The question there was clear: What do you need?

"I will allow you to tend to Miss Tendo however you see fit – first aid, treatment for her sickness, keeping her company. I can tell you want to."

Robin flinched very slightly, hating that he could sense even a single emotion from her. In all likelihood, it was from yesterday's lapse in neutrality. "Why would you let me do that? Aren't you interrogating her?"

He bared his crocodile grin at her and her stomach felt like lead. There was some new twist in the man's mind and she was about to be privy to it. "Even weak with sickness, she withstands torture well. Imagine what an asset she could be. Additionally, having my partner become her friend would be a good tactic if I wanted to keep her off-balance."

"You don't want that?" she asked softly.

"Not at all. After all, I want my tools powerful. She needs to fear my power but I want her to trust you." He reached under his chair and pulled out an iron box. He removed the contents and set the box aside. "I also want you to feed her this."

Robin took the object from him, rolling it over in her hands. It had the spirals inherent to a Devil Fruit and resembled a smallish honeydew melon aside from its soft skin and sky-blue color. "A Devil Fruit?"

"Yes," he said with a snakelike hiss. "A Logia type. Kaze Kaze no Mi. She must eat it."

Nodding, Robin took leave of his presence, maneuvering through the basement area of the casino for different items. She retrieved a first aid kit and an assortment of medicinal balls from an exam room that never held a doctor in her entire time with this organization and a pile of high-calorie sugar treats and a large canteen of water from the kitchen. Back in front of the door that now led to Akane, she took a deep breath and opened it.

She almost dropped the bag that held her various collected items when she finally saw the girl for the first time in thirty-six hours. Physically, Crocodile had not been kind to the girl – she was covered in blood to the point that it half-soaked her clothing. Mentally, she seemed mostly unchanged, if somewhat focused.

Akane had long since shed her shoes and they had found a home with a lump Robin soon recognized at her jacket. She moved in some form of kenpo-tai chi-jujitsu mix, her body fluid and even. Settling the bag to the ground, she quietly closed the door and watched the young girl. Every once in a while, she would move sharply to strike an invisible opponent but this form seemed mostly defensive.

"What do you want?" The girl's voice was hoarse, perhaps stripped raw from a mixture of her sickness and the screams. However, the effect of it made her seem harsh and rough.

"What are you doing?" Robin asked after a moment, her natural curiosity bleeding through her usually aloof tone.

Akane stopped suddenly and her eyes, terribly bloodshot with tears and stress, finally looked at her guest. "I thought he…" She trailed off and closed her eyes but Robin couldn't miss the shudder that broke through what had been an unnatural stillness. "It helps to ground me, to keep… all of me here," she said after a moment, pushing the words out around her trembles.

An odd maternal instinct overwhelmed Robin and the archaeologist rushed to Akane's side. "It's okay. You did good," she informed her truthfully.

Swallowing audibly, Akane smiled tremulously at Robin. "What are you doing here anyway?"

Grimacing, Robin pulled the blue Devil Fruit out of her bag and handed it to the girl. "Eat this. We should get that out of the way."

Akane eyed it suspiciously even as her stomach growled a warning. "Is it going to kill me?"

The woman laughed softly, though little mirth could be found in the sound. "If he wanted you dead, he would have killed you already."

Arching an eyebrow, she shrugged her shoulder in a way that suggested a 'here goes nothing' kind of feeling and finally bit into the fruit. While she devoured it, Robin lifted the canteen out of the bag and unscrewed the cap. She knew from experience that the taste of those fruits weren't ideal.

Akane's next comment confirmed that fact. "Blech!" She stuck out her tongue in distaste and readily accepted the water, draining about a third of the container. While the girl was busy with the water, Robin pulled out a plate to lay the treats on and the first aid. She opened the kit and prepared some antiseptic on a cotton ball that she then attached to long tweezer tongs. "Why is he letting you do this?" she asked finally, mouthing the words around half a snack.

"He wants me doing this," Robin told her. "That's not to say I don't want to. I half-thought you were dying from all the screaming."

Akane winced, her face turning away in shame. That was a strange reaction, Robin thought. "You could hear?"

"I was listening," she admitted. "From his own mouth, he wants you as a tool, thus the fruit."

The girl's eyes narrowed briefly before her face relaxed again, perhaps from some errant thought. "I'll never be his tool," she promised under her breath. "Was the fruit something special?"

"It's a Devil Fruit." Robin waited for her response, not knowing if she'd heard of the fruits yet in her life.

"Like Luffy? And you too, I guess." At Robin's nod, Akane sat still for long moments, idly cringing when the archaeologist cleaned a particularly soft spot. "If he wants me as a tool, then he thinks I'm fairly strong," she mused aloud. "What was its name?"

"Kaze Kaze no Mi," Robin answered as she discarded the cotton ball for a fresh one.

"The Wind Wind Fruit," she echoed idly. "That explains it. It's not manifesting, though." Akane's brow drew together, creating lines in her forehead. "Why is that?"

"There's Sea Stone in the walls like bars and it blocks a Devil Fruit user's abilities. Or, well, it does most of the time. If you're particularly strong, it might not affect you too much."

"Like Crocodile," Akane murmured softly.

"Yes." Robin stowed the first aid kit as she finished and handed the girl one of the medicine balls. It would be touch and go on what medicine to use – she wasn't a doctor and she could only play at guesswork based on the symptoms she'd witnessed. Hopefully, she would get it right early. "Don't expect anything to change."

Her eyes slightly distant, she nodded. "Right. I guess the torture will have an entirely different goal now."

Robin nodded, smiling slightly as how easily Akane grasped the situation before her. "After all," the archaeologist added, "if you are to be useful to him, you must be both strong and effective with your new abilities."

* * *

Zoro felt ill at ease. He wasn't entirely sure when the feeling began – feelings generally weren't his forte. Sure, he could understand them and how they fit in the world around him but when they were his own… he was mostly at a loss.

If he'd had to pinpoint it, it was probably sometime yesterday when he realized that he'd swam much farther from Merry than he'd intended. Several times, when he wasn't too busy thinking about how cold it was or how horrible his sense of direction seemed to be, he could feel an influx of some unknown feeling that he just wrote off as guilt. After all, he'd left Akane alone to watch the ship. Despite her claims to the contrary, he knew that she might be sick enough to warrant a doctor.

The ship now in sight, Zoro's gaze flitted to their new doctor. Chopper might have been the cutest reindeer he'd ever seen – and how much did he feel like heaving just for thinking the word 'cute'? He could tell that Chopper was a dedicated doctor, probably with a gentler touch than that hag he called Doctorine.

"Akane-chan, we're back!" Sanji called suddenly.

Zoro shook himself out of his thoughts and felt that stab of unease again, a feeling of something terribly wrong that he just couldn't seem to shake. The ship seemed strangely empty, the chill of this island having settled over the deck in the time since they'd left. His eyes roamed the expanse of the upper deck, not seeing a trace of the dark-haired girl.

"Where's Akane?" Usopp asked idly.

Nami shrugged. "Maybe she went to sleep."

Zoro frowned slightly. It was possible, especially if her sickness was making her sleep more than normal. He usually saw her sleep on deck during the day and sometimes wondered if she ever slept at night. Baseless alarm was putting pressure on his chest and he could feel it almost trying to claw out of his throat. "She was sick," he said aloud suddenly, his tone disturbingly even.

He wasn't surprised when everyone turned to him.

"Why did you leave her alone?" Sanji and Usopp asked simultaneously, though the cook sounded angry while the sniper seemed merely concerned.

"I'll check our room," Vivi offered softly.

Chopper seemed panicked to a moment and then followed the blue-haired girl. Thinking that would be the end of that, Zoro arched an eyebrow at the cook and leaned against the railing. "She told me to go," he answered him. "I was planning to train anyway and she said she was fine."

A beat of silence passed, broken suddenly by Vivi rushing back out onto the deck. "She's not there. Is she in the kitchen or the crow's nest?"

Sanji strode quickly to the galley as Luffy stretched his arms to the crow's nest, his body continuing the journey after a moment. "Nope," the captain called down. The cook erupted from his domain and shook his head.

Usopp frowned, his eyes focused on some distant spot. "You think she's on the island?"

Vivi's eyes had darkened with worry. "If she was already sick, wouldn't that make it worse?"

The sharpshooter nodded vaguely. "The only other option I can think of is that she was kidnapped."

Luffy landed on the deck with a soft thud, his hand resting against the mast. "But… Akane's so strong. Who would be able to kidnap her?"

Chopper cleared his throat softly and Zoro realized he hadn't noticed him following Vivi out of the girls' room. "Depending on what was wrong, she could have been significantly weakened. If perhaps she was treating herself…" The small reindeer looked over to Zoro for confirmation.

At first, the swordsman was irritated – why did they keep looking at him? This wasn't his fault. But it was true that he was the last person to see Akane and his temper cooled immediately. "She was drinking the stuff Sanji made for Nami and she said that… she just needed a nap?"

Chopper nodded knowingly. "Fluids and rest – that's normally a cure-all for colds. That may have been all she had. However…" He trailed off, raising his hooves in a sort of animal shrug.

Luffy's somber face grinned. "We should search the island. We can't leave nakama behind, you know that."

"Hey! Straw Hat!" a voice called. Zoro turned and saw one of the men that had them at gunpoint early the day before, when they had arrived.

The captain turned and looked up at the man. "What?" he called back.

"With all that was happening with the former king, one of the lookouts forgot until just now. Before Wapol's ship came, he said he saw something that looked like a turtle, a woman on a turtle."

"Miss All-Sunday," Vivi whispered softly.

Luffy curled his hands into fists, the joints cracking slightly at the force. "Crocodile," he growled.

"To Alabasta?" Nami asked the captain softly. He nodded decisively and Zoro could see the anger in Luffy's eyes. Sure, Baroque Works was an evil organization and they were destroying Vivi's homeland but now they'd taken someone that was clearly nakama, something clearly important to Luffy.

Zoro watched the captain suddenly shed the anger like a layer of clothing suddenly. While his determination was still lying in wait under the surface, waiting for the right moment to be of use, they still had a new member to welcome to the crew.


	8. Hatching Plans

THREE DAYS LATER…

Akane allowed herself to crumple to the ground as Crocodile left the room again. She had no idea how much time had passed; Robin usually gave her an idea but some parts of her brain were still flailing for a sense of time. It could have been anywhere from two days to a week. Her body ached from receiving blow after blow from the large man and she sported several bandages that covered healing gashes. This so-called "training" would be the death of her.

Laying her back flat against the sand, she closed her eyes and concentrated, furrowing her brow with the effort. She could feel the shift inside her almost instantly and opened her eyes. Her hands still looked solid, so she rolled over on her side and pressed one of her hands into the sand. The seemingly solid body part disappeared into nearly invisible wisps and she could feel that whatever she was composed of now just spread apart, literally like wind over sand. When she looked harder, there was a shimmer over her body, like seeing wind blow over rocks.

The door clicked and Akane shifted her gaze to see Robin's face, a bright but pained smile pasted there. It wasn't healthy but Akane knew she had been attaching herself to the older woman. She needed something to hang on to, after all; otherwise, she expected the pain and the taunts and the way Crocodile obviously took pleasure in her torture would have driven her quite mad. Robin also helped her with the type of training she was used to: positive reinforcement and discussing what exactly made the abilities work.

"You only have a few days left," the older woman began.

"Whatever that means in here," Akane murmured to herself.

"If that."

Akane jerked, her body coming back to its fully physical form and sitting upright. "What do you mean, 'if that'?"

Robin sighed and set down her bag of goodies. "I am the one that goes out to the organization's spies. I am Crocodile's eyes."

Akane nodded wearily, the memory coming back. "Right, because no one knows his true identity and he wants to keep it that way." She raised her hand to rub her temples. Even though her cold had finally dissipated either the day before or early this morning, she still felt so tired, probably an effect of the intense training and constantly trying to use her new abilities within an room made specially to block them.

She was idly amazed at how much she _could_ manifest.

"Anyhow, one of the spies spotted the Straw Hat pirate flag just before sunset. They should arrive at Nanohana shortly after sunrise."

Akane was relieved to hear the implication that it was nighttime. That meant she would have maybe six to eight hours of pain-free existence before morning came. Closing her eyes, she forced herself to concentrate – there was something she'd forgotten. "Okay, what about Mister Three? As far as I know, he's the only one that knows Luffy and the rest of the crew survived."

The archaeologist shook her head. "Mister Two hasn't contacted us and Crocodile is assuming that Mister Three escaped. It worries me."

_Me too,_ Akane agreed silently. "I know he's not pleased with my progress," she started, hoping to divert their attention from debilitating anxiety.

"You still can't react reflexively?" Robin asked, her mouth pursed slightly.

The girl's face altered into a fierce grimace. "It's this room," she said after a moment. "I can barely consciously become partially wind-like, never mind subconsciously. It's impossible."

"Have you been able to manifest your ability when near the walls?"

Akane shrugged. "Let me show you something." She gathered what energy her body had left and stood, moving to the wall nearest to both her and Robin. Next, she stretched out her arms until the fingertips of one appendage was about a half-meter from the wall, close enough to feel the effects but far enough so to not be directly blocked by the Sea Stone. "Come look."

Robin approached the girl, her sharp eyes just barely seeing the details that Akane herself could feel. Her hand near the wall was completely solid but as one looked to the other side of her body, she seemed less corporeal and more like a weak mirage. "That's amazing," the older woman compliment softly.

As if her words themselves were some kind of cue, Akane relaxed, slumping into a pile on the ground again. Her body was still releasing sweat from the strain and it occurred to her that she hadn't pushed herself this hard in years. Constantly accosted by pain and exhaustion, she was still managed to train the abilities the Devil Fruit had given her.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to master it, not before it comes out about the crew," Akane admitted softly.

Robin grinned and it was startling. While Akane was sure the feeling behind the expression was a touch manic, it was still odd to see the usually aloof woman with any kind of emotion. "You're very strong, aren't you?" She could sense more than that specific question there but was far too tired to find it.

"Strong as a gorilla," she answered, echoing Ranma's own description of her brute force. "I'm just tired all the time."

"But you could shatter the door if you wanted, if you got some of your strength back?"

Akane looked from Robin's blue eyes to the wooden door that led out of this stone-within-stone room. "Probably but it wouldn't do any good. It would be loud and Crocodile's much better trained than me. He'd probably have me back in here in moments, with new cuts and bruises to boot."

"That's exactly what I thought." Robin turned around and retrieved the bag, pulling out various items. It seemed to mainly consist of enough food to feed Luffy for thirty minutes (which was to say that it was three meals for her) and three large canteens of water. "But I have a plan."

"First off," Akane interrupted, "what's with all the food? Buffet extravaganza or something?"

"This is part of it, to help you get back up to par."

"Won't he notice it?"

The smile on Robin's face finally became genuine, tuned down to a wide but close-lipped curve. "That's right, I didn't tell you yet. He turned over your training to me, said that my way might be more effective."

"But what if something happened? Or if it does turn out right? Won't he suspect you?"

"Other than the unexpected but useful fondness that I have for you, I've done nothing to arouse suspicion. Everything I have done has been done under his orders." She raised a finger over her lips then. "Now, hush. And listen."

Akane settled herself on the packed sand of the floor and listened to Robin's plan intently. It hinged on her ability to use most of the next two days to restore her body's effectiveness. There was a very specific reasoning for that timing: that was when Crocodile planned to meet with some of the Officer Agents. Robin didn't say who exactly and Akane found that she didn't quite care.

By the time the older woman left, Akane was dead tired, her eyelids drooping involuntarily. Just before sleep claimed her, she thought of Ranma and how he would have raged through this place, destroying everything in his path just to find her and denying any type of intimate feeling afterwards.

"Hentai no baka, you can't save me here." True enough was the knowledge that Akane had to save herself.

* * *

Chopper reached his short body slightly upward to open the door to the girls' room. The sun had set a couple of hours ago but everybody was still awake, something that wouldn't last for long. They were anchored for now, which he knew meant that sleep would be oncoming. First, he had something he needed to do.

Tomorrow would be the beginning of an incredible adventure and Chopper knew not how long it would last. The idea of an adventure made him tremble with excitement but he also dreaded the desert island. He was a reindeer, after all; that kind of heat could possibly make him immobile for some time, especially right after leaving the winter island of Drum.

Akane. It was like a topic that most of them were trying to avoid, except for the fact that Crocodile was often broached in their conversations. As a result, they all thought of her in one way or another. Sanji had described her to him but the reindeer wasn't certain that all of the language – utterly flowery and goddess-like – was completely accurate.

Once inside the room, he shifted to his mostly-reindeer form and sniffed the air, his blue nose twitching with the action. The familiar smells of Nami and Vivi attacked his senses immediately and he idly wondered why he hadn't thought to do this sooner, before much of Akane's scent had faded. Both Nami and Vivi had strong feminine scents, often augmented by perfume (a scent that Chopper in particular disliked). However, there was still… something underneath all that.

It was earthy and natural and somehow still entirely feminine, making him think of sundresses and grassy fields for some reason. He put it aside, knowing the images he sometimes got when scenting were purely instinctual. Chasing the Akane scent to its origin, he found an untouched corner of the room.

It was a little cluttered but in a neat way, like little clumps of organization. Blank canvases were stacked against the wall with a half-finished painting on top; clothes were neatly folded a couple feet away and he noticed a box of chalk laying on top of some type of training outfit. He transformed back into his small part-reindeer part-child form with a soft pop and picked up the chalk. What was the significance to chalk? The placement seemed important.

Chopper barely had time to react when he heard the click of the opening door. He gasped audibly and immediately tripped over the clothes in an effort to cling to the wall. His fear was immediately dampened by the shock, for it wasn't an outraged Nami or Vivi but a very calm Zoro. "Zoro!" he exclaimed softly. "What are you doing in here?"

"I could ask the same," the swordsman rejoined in that maddeningly even voice of his. He focused and saw that Chopper was holding the chalk in his hooves. "You want to know what that's for?"

Setting the chalk box back in its place, the small reindeer nodded eagerly and went over to Zoro. The tall green-haired man led them both back out onto the deck, where they detoured to the rear of the ship. It occurred to Chopper that he hadn't seen many of them on the rear deck since they'd left Drum. Once there, his keen eyes immediately noticed a blurred circle, blurred to the point that it was just barely visible.

"What's that?" Chopper asked softly.

"That's where she trains," Zoro answered just as quietly.

Chopper stepped inside the circle and looked around. It seemed kind of small, especially if she trained in some type of fighting, which is what he figured Zoro meant. "Where she trains?" he echoed uncertainly.

"Her fighting style is meant to defend against an army. The point of the circle is to complete all attack and defense while never leaving that area." When Chopper nodded in understanding after a moment, Zoro continued. "What were you doing in there anyway?"

"Scenting her," Chopper answered. "I hoped that if I catch her scent in Alabasta, then I can help find her."

"That's… actually a really good idea."

Chopper was instantly offended. "What, did you think that because I'm a reindeer, I couldn't come up with ideas?"

Zoro raised his hands, instantly trying to wave off the verbal attack. "No, not that. It's just…" His gaze went distant. "The captain tends to bring out the stupid in us."

His instinctive rage deflected, the small reindeer smiled shyly. "So, I did good?"

Zoro laughed. "Yeah. Just don't tell Akane that you were ever in there, sniffing around in her stuff."


	9. Escape!

The two days between actually informing Akane of the plan and the actual execution of it were more than a little difficult for the girl, Robin knew. The archaeologist had taken Crocodile at the very letter of his word and hadn't expected him to bother "training" Akane again. That had been more than a little naïve of her.

The Shichibukai had tortured her two more times, once each day with shorter intervals than any of the sessions prior. The first had been in the evening of the first day, half an hour of the usual beating or what Robin knew Akane had come to expect as the usual. The archaeologist had followed it up like usual, with food and the first aid kit. Despite her initial worry, nothing had been altered from his usual sessions – Akane sported a few new bruises and shallow cuts but nothing out of the norms.

Something that did ramp up her anxiety just the smallest amount was some of her larger gashes weren't healing properly. It was likely the conditions she was living in but it made Robin wish for the whole situation to finally be over.

Sadly, the next time was much worse and it occurred a mere six hours before the Officer Agents were due to arrive. Crocodile erupted from the room after only twenty minutes with blood dripping from his golden hook. The sight made Robin cringe internally – he rarely used that appendage as a weapon. Again, the archaeologist followed up with Akane, taking time to ensure that the first aid kit was fully stocked.

The sight of Akane's current state shocked her, to say the least. Robin expected blood, that was for certain. Collapsed to the ground, the young girl was bleeding profusely from one of her shoulders and from her abdomen. However, the really startling part was… she was smiling.

Just after Robin closed the door behind her, Akane coughed softly. "Hey, Robin." A thin spatter of blood now lined her lips.

"Akane! What happened?" Robin asked, her mind whirling in a panic as she began to apply first aid.

Akane merely adjusted herself into a sitting position and stilled Robin's hands, making the archaeologist realize she was a little shaky. "I dodged him. He felt he needed to… 'reassert his control'. No big."

Robin's eyes clouded over with concern. "But…." She trailed off, making herself stop to take a breath. With the calming measure, she could feel her nerves settle. "It looks serious."

"Just wrap it up. I'll be good to go." Akane then removed her shirt, an article of clothing that had already been soaked with blood at least once before. However, without the shirt in the way, Robin could clearly see her new wounds. From what she knew of Crocodile's methods, it looked like his hook went into her shoulder and he'd taken a sand saber to create a wide, deep gash on her abdomen.

"It won't keep. You need a doctor," Robin murmured softly as she began wrapping medical gauze around her shoulder. "Why were you smiling?"

"I dodged him," she repeated, as if those three words held some magical formula that Robin didn't quite understand. After a moment of confused silence, Akane huffed and began to clarify. "I've got a lot of my speed and strength back if I was able to dodge him." Her eyes focused on some distant point for a moment. "In fact, I might've been faster than before."

Robin laughed softly, mostly at herself for not getting what she meant right away. "He wasn't angry?"

Akane winced slightly as Robin began applying the gauze to her gash, wrapping that particular wound more tightly because of both the nature of the injury and its location. "Not really. I think he's relieved that my spirit's back or something like that." She fluttered her hand dismissively to imply that she couldn't guess what went on in Crocodile's mind. "I'm just not reacting how he wants. You know, I'm not going poof!" The girl gestured in a way that another person might misconstrue as an explosion but Robin knew it meant the becoming-wind response that the Shichibukai was seeking.

Nodding in agreement, Robin began to stow the remaining items back inside the kit. She tried not to notice that bloody was already begin to show on the bandages as Akane donned her slightly tacky shirt. "Will you still be able to…?" Her voice faded, the tension now showing in her blue eyes as she thought of the various ways these new injuries could hinder her escape.

The smile drifted away from Akane's face, replaced with a particularly determined expression. "I have to. I will," she promised softly.

"You remember the way?" When Robin had come to help her train, which actually translated as mostly watching her run through the different katas of her martial arts school, she had talked the girl through an escape route. It was actually relatively simple – this room was connected to the hallway that led directly to the open casino and, of course, the door that led to Rainbase.

Akane nodded. She wandered over to the corner of the room where her jackets and shoes lay, taking a moment to tie the jacket around her waist and slip the shoes back on her feet. "I remember."

Robin left her soon after, allowing the girl to regain some of her strength and eat what food she'd brought before the time came. Getting out of the casino and, in turn, Rainbase before Crocodile could notice might be trying but this was the best possible plan she could come up with. When the time came, Robin may be the one creating the opportunity and it was all on Akane to get away quickly and safely.

* * *

The click sounded loud to Akane's ears.

She had been meditating in an attempt to preserve her strength for the last three hours. A brief time ago, she'd heard a collection of footsteps, probably the Officer Agents being led to some kind of conference area. She remembered a lot of what Robin had told her about the entire situation and Crocodile's ultimate endgame, though most of it was vague echoes in the back of her mind.

And how funny was it that a member of a dastardly organization of assassins became disgusted with the fact that it was about a weapon?

She waited a few more seconds and listened intently. A soft knock sounded against the outside of the door three times, Robin's signal for all clear. With a speed that still surprised her, Akane burst across the room but forced herself to carefully and slowly open the door so as to not make the hinges scream.

Her first sight upon her achingly careful opening of the door almost forced her back inside. However, with the confident knowledge that Crocodile was occupied elsewhere, Akane managed to exit and look at the person who had just ran past, apparently taking no notice of the door that could have partially obstructed his path. She squinted her eyes at the departing figure with a very familiar hairdo and barely managed to keep herself from gasping.

Mister Three!

Closing her eyes for half a second and making herself breath normally was the only thing that was keeping her from panicking outright. It proved to her exactly how much control Crocodile had managed to exert over her and how much the torture had manage to unbalance her. Feeling the tremors of panic pass, she finally took off at a shot to the right until she reached the set of stairs that led directly up to the casino.

When Akane had asked Robin why it was so easy to navigate, she had told her there was really not need for labyrinthine passageways. Perhaps if he had encountered opposition more often, then Crocodile might have thought otherwise. Besides, she'd added, a good-sized portion of the basement level was a spiraling pit trap that ultimately landed the victims in a smallish Sea Stone prison. And there were the banana crocs…

_Kami-sama, but this place is a death trap,_ Akane thought in retrospect.

As Robin promised, she erupted into a side hallway that led out into the casino. The VIP room that this path led to was actually Crocodile's basement conference room. Also as promised and Akane confirmed by peeking around the corner, the door to the outside was in line of sight now. If she could only run fast enough, none of the casino-goers would even notice her presence.

Akane closed her eyes again and concentrated, trying to find her center. Until five days ago, it had been a roiling red ball of energy, signifying her short temper and the strength of any of her emotions (much of which seemed disturbingly at a loss in this new world). Now, however, the energy was purple and felt very much like being wrapped by a strong headwind. She had gotten used to it over the past few days and it almost felt like a summer breeze, although that (like anything else) was strongly dependent upon her mood.

Center grasped within her mind, she shot forward, concentrating solely on the doors. This time, her speed was scary fast and she moved fluidly, her body somehow containing more grace than she'd ever felt. It wasn't until she passed through the rapidly closing doors, escaping through a space that was definitely much too small for her body, that she realized something was off.

She was flying!

As the realization settled in her mind and her logic suddenly began battling the idea, her body dropped like a stone, landing hard on the bridge that connected the Rain Dinners casino to the rest of Rainbase. Though pain flared through her body from the two major wounds, Akane still managed to stand and run from the building behind her as quickly as she could manage.

Even as she stolidly put distance between herself and Crocodile, she was careful to observe her surroundings. First, as Robin had told her it would be, it was quite dark, the sun having set long ago and the moon just reaching its peak in the sky. Secondly, the other structures in Rainbase were kind of tall and packed kind of close together, not suffocatingly so like in Loguetown and enough to create wide alleyways and a sort of labyrinth through the city. Her keen sense of direction could lead her out of the city easily.

Suddenly, she stumbled and she realized her adrenaline was coming down. As her burning need to flee began to fail, she could feel pain began to attack her brain again. Knowing what was about to happen, she threaded herself through the alleyways until she was almost on the edge of the city but still had enough cover that it was unlikely that she could be found.

Akane finally settled down in an alleyway about half a kilometer from where the city ended and the desert began. The need to rest blanketed her mind and her abused muscles, both weak from days of torture and unused to the speed that she was pushing out of her body, screamed at her in gratitude. Her eyes fluttered closed but she tried her best to stay alert even as her body began to shut down.

She'd really wanted to figure out what had happened. She had flown, she knew that. Had she turned into wind? Thinking back on the experience, she remembered being extraordinarily light but that could have been her imagination. After all, she had been losing blood for close to seven hours now; she could feel it well enough now, the wounds had never really stopped seeping blood.

_Sorry, Robin,_ she thought as she lost consciousness. _Turns out, I really do need a doctor._


	10. Her Decisions

"Where's Akane, you bastard?"

Zoro half-opened his eyes at Luffy's loud and enraged inquiry, smiling very slightly when the captain went limp from coming in contact with the bars of their singular prison yet again. He wasn't sure if the ability to cut steel would come in handy here; Kairoseki, the Sea Stone that nullified both Luffy's and Smoker's abilities, was a very specific and almost magical sort of metal. Of course, in the meantime, that didn't even matter, seeing as his ability to slice metal wasn't exactly a reliable skill.

His eyes shifted to the smug Shichibukai outside of the cage, watching his face for clues to refine his knowledge of the situation. Something flickered across Crocodile's face – something like anger, maybe rage – before his expression settled into back into that bland but utterly confident placement of features. Something had happened, Zoro was sure of it, but he didn't have enough information to figure out exactly what that was.

"Miss Tendo would have been quite an asset. Don't you agree, Miss All-Sunday?"

His eyes had begun to close again when his mind caught on those words: 'would have been'. He returned to full awareness almost immediately. What did that mean? Could she have managed an escape?

"I do agree, Mister Zero," the tall woman responded softly. Zoro could feel fury build inside him at the sight of her, the very feeling causing him to stand, and was not surprised when their bland interaction made Luffy grab the metal of their prison and shake.

His almost immediate collapse to the ground was expected but it managed to diffuse some of the swordsman's anger.

"What happened?" Zoro asked, partly because he was hoping they could be stalled from completing whatever it was the Shichibukai had planned for them but mostly because he wanted to know.

Crocodile arched an eyebrow and directed his gaze to Miss All-Sunday, giving her a shallow nod. At that cue, she spoke. "She escaped from here sometime last night while we were… otherwise occupied." While her comment could be taken any one of many ways, her casual disinterest indicated to Zoro that whatever had occupied them had likely not been sexual in nature.

"W-w-why did you take her in the first place?" Usopp's indignation and forced anger was somewhat undercut by his trembling and stuttering.

Crocodile pinned the sharpshooter with a hard look, one that indicated that the older man thought he was quite dim in the upstairs. "She defeated twenty bounty hunters on her own. Within two minutes, if the survivors are to be believed," he added almost as a second thought, his tone musing.

"What?" Luffy said weakly. "When did Akane…?" His hand drifted slightly and he was in contact with the Sea Stone again. Rolling his eyes, Zoro silently thought it was amazing how quickly the captain could keep recovering from something that was constantly sapping his strength.

"Yeah!" Nami exclaimed in a burst. "When did Akane take down twenty bounty hunters?"

A memory flashed in front of Zoro's eyes. _{He had noticed the cut on Akane's cheek almost as soon as they'd arrived back at the ship but Vivi's situation had them flailing for normalcy for some time. By the time he asked her, the cut had faded somewhat and she simply replied, "Oh, this? You know me, such a klutz."}_ Someday, he would remember to ask why exactly she had hidden that from them.

"At Whiskey Peak, of course," Crocodile answered idly. "Oh, you didn't know?" Zoro knew it was obvious from their expressions that they hadn't known and the tone that the Shichibukai was using was making him extremely irritated. "How very interesting. Miss All-Sunday, you know her best. Why do you think she didn't tell them?"

In return, the woman responded with a short, almost curt laugh. "While I'm sure it would please you if I said that she had no care for them, Mister Zero, I believe she simply didn't want to worry them."

Crocodile nodded, accepting the reason. "It's of no matter," he continued. "After Operation Utopia is completed, I will not have a hard time recovering her. She is my tool, after all." That said, Crocodile began to eat the food that had been sitting on the table in front of him, calmly and elegantly lifting the silverware.

"You're not taking Akane. She's _my_ nakama!" Luffy declared passionately, his fists held tightly at his sides. Zoro noticed that after much trial and error, the captain finally got the picture that touching the bars was a bit of a no-go.

The broad man scoffed in genuine amusement. "Pirate nakama… I'll tell you something now, Straw Hat. Pirates always go for the better deal and _I_ am the better deal. No honor among thieves, you see?"

Luffy continued to yell at Crocodile, fierce and unstoppable, and the next moment revealed Vivi's presence, just as fierce wielding her peacock slashers. Of course, Crocodile's until-then unknown ability to reflexively turn into sand came into play and the princess's surprise attack was about as effective as poking a blob of jelly. Even so, Zoro thought about the fact that Akane had a very strong sense of honor and finally let himself feel relieved about her escape, even if their own seemed less and less likely.

* * *

Chopper smelled blood.

He had been running around Rainbase for how long, he didn't quite know. Surely longer than he'd needed to. After all, he'd shifted from the large humanish form that ran around claiming to be 'Mister Prince' to his chibi form, which was a lot less threatening. Now, he was near the southern edge of the city, trying to plan a route back to the casino to meet with the rest of the crew.

The blood called to him, not because he was an animal (although that did play a part) but more because he was a doctor. Someone was bleeding nearby. Shifting into his reindeer form, he allowed his little blue nose to lead him. If someone was hurt and they weren't likely to kill him when they were all better again, he had to help.

Underneath the coppery scent of blood, he could smell something very familiar. _Sundresses and grassy fields,_ he thought idly and then gasped after a moment of delay. Galloping in the direction where his nose told him someone was bleeding, he called out, "Akane?"

A pained groan answered him and he dove into a nearby alley. There lay a girl about Nami's age with short black hair and blood-soaked clothing. Her personal scent was strong but the metallic blood-smell was almost overwhelming it to the point that Chopper began to get very afraid. After a moment of indecisive panic, he pulled off his med-bag and began rummaging through it, finally pulling out a pair of surgical scissors to clip away her shirt.

He idly noticed the sun was still pretty high in the sky. It was the latter half of mid-afternoon, just a drop of time before the sun would begin its evening descent. He had no clue how long she'd been here but knew that he needed to get her patched up before night fell. If she spent even one night in the desert with its chilling cold, it could prove to be more than her body could handle. Of course, that all depended on the extent of her injuries.

Why was there so much blood?

She hissed sharply as he pulled the bandage from her shoulder, having already removed the barrier of her top, and he backed away fearfully when it was obvious that she was regaining consciousness. "God, that was…" Suddenly, her eyes focused sharply and her hands went to her torso, feeling the proof that she was indeed shirtless. She stumbled to her feet unsteadily, the waver obvious in her movements, and pressed her back into the wall. "Who are you?"

"I'm a reindeer," Chopper said boldly before shrinking automatically against the opposite wall from her position.

She was silent for a moment, her eyes darting between her cut-away shirt to the medical items on the ground to the reindeer himself that wore a broad pink hat with a tilted medical cross. He saw her go limp with relief and then immediately tense up again, her eyes wildly searching the world of Rainbase beyond the opening of the alleyway. "What are you doing? Are you helping me?"

"I'm a doctor," he clarified gently, starting to catch the symptom of trauma on her face. It wasn't just the cuts and bruises that were obvious there but the fear in her eyes and the way her body was held as taut as a violin string. "You're Akane, right?" He was starting to calm and knew that was required if he was to treat her properly.

Her brown eyes narrowed on the small reindeer. "How do you know that?"

"I'm part of Luffy's crew now," he told her, still using his softest tones. He had been about to say 'the Straw Hat crew' but was glad he'd used the captain's actual name. At the sound of his name, Akane relaxed immediately.

"Really?" Her brown eyes were shining with unshed tears and, if he was correct, quite a bit of pain. "I'm sorry."

Chopper walked up to her and tugged on her arm, a sign to get her to come down to his level so he could treat her. It surprised him how he was no longer afraid of her, as he often was around new people, most especially humans. "It's okay," he reassured her as she finally laid back down on the sand-lined ground. "I can see you're suffering from trauma."

Akane laughed but the sound was harsh and held absolutely no humor. "You could say that," she murmured. After a moment, she spoke again. "Can you just treat and wrap the big wounds for now?"

The reindeer's eyes went wide and he shook his head vehemently. "Absolutely not."

The girl turned her head and stared at him with those large brown eyes. "Please. Just stop the bleeding and treat for infection and point me in the direction of the ship. What's going to happen tomorrow… it's more important than me."

Frowning deeply, Chopper sat down and began applying an antiseptic for the large wound. "What is happening?"

"The civil war," she whispered. "While that's going on, Crocodile is going to make the king show him the poneglyph and Robin will translate it."

"Robin?" Chopper asked.

"Miss All-Sunday. Don't let anyone hurt her, either. She's not really evil, she's doesn't even want Croc's endgame to happen."

"His endgame?" he echoed, encouraging her to talk. Not only was he certain they would need the information, but he was sneaking in some medical observation of her lesser wounds. It would be an understatement to say he did not like what he saw.

"It's a weapon, an ancient weapon. It's very powerful – it would basically give him more power than the World Government." She breathed shallowly as he moved to her abdominal wound, hissing again in pain as the old bandage was removed. "That's been his plan all along. Everything else was just a smokescreen."

Chopper continued his partial treatment quietly, mulling over Akane's words. As much as he knew he should stay with her, he had this horrible feeling that they might need him. Even if that weren't true, it was quite likely that Akane would make him go. After he finished wrapped the gash in her abdomen, he helped to remove the remains of her shirt and to put the jacket on her upper body.

They walked to the southern edge of the city and stood there, staring at the horizon and watching the sun slowly shift the world into evening. "I don't like this."

Akane was silent for another moment. "Tell them I'm okay and that I returned to the ship. I don't want them worrying about me when there are more important things to take care of."

"I want you to take this when you get to the ship," Chopper told her in his strongest voice, holding up a greenish-blue medical ball.

Accepting it easily enough, Akane still arched an eyebrow at it. "What is it?"

"A sedative. It'll allow you to sleep and your body to do what healing it is able." Finally, he pointed in the almost-precise direction that the ship was. "Take it as soon as you see the ship. It might take a few minutes to set in."

Nodding, Akane closed her eyes and then ran in that direction at a speed the reindeer wasn't aware her body could handle. She was beginning to become a small figure on the horizon when she seemed to become hazy and then disappear. A couple seconds of panic followed but then she was there again, much smaller than before.

_These people and their weird powers,_ Chopper thought to himself just before his nose caught the scent of Nami's perfume. It was time to rejoin the crew now but he still prayed fervently to whatever god that would listen that Akane survive long enough for him to treat her again.

* * *

**A/N: Just a heads up: the updates might begin to be coming a little less often than they have been. I have a Ranma non-crossover in my head (Akane-centered as always) and I'm probably going to start writing it at least, if not posting quite yet.**


	11. Recuperating

Akane had slept through that first night in Rainbase like the dead, the pain forcing her down for far longer than she would have liked. However, even after the sun had risen, she found it quite difficult to maintain consciousness, much less to keep moving out into the unforgiving desert. Luckily, though, that had given her time to think through the flying thing.

As a matter of course, she'd known that the Devil Fruit would give her interesting abilities, especially being an element type. For now, at least, flight seemed contingent on her having either picked up a certain amount of speed or having incredible focus. In the future, she could probably try to refine it so that neither was required but the night before, she had been desperate. If she could help it, she would never be quite that desperate ever again.

It had been more than a blessing that the reindeer doctor had shown up. The constant blood loss, though small, had been consistently sapping her strength. She knew that she probably couldn't have survived another night like that, at least not easily. She also knew that she had been a little hasty about making him forego a full examination – a week's worth of torture session, both regular and quite intense, was more than enough to put her body at a mere fraction of its best and her mind could be a little… fractured.

Steeling her resolve, she reminded herself that she had made the best decision she could for that situation. This had been an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it kind of thing and if she was sacrificing herself for the greater good, then so be it. It was almost amusing, she realized after a moment; pirates shouldn't think that way.

Right?

She also came to the realization that she didn't catch the doctor's name. Pity, that.

Coming down from flight once again, Akane stopped and took a breather. It might be because her body wasn't used to it yet but doing the invisible flight over and over again was a little exhausting. In the past hour, as the sun completely fell behind the horizon, she had come to some logical findings about her new power.

First, being in flight meant physically becoming wind, which meant no physical heavy-Akane body and that she was as invisible as flowing air. (It was kind of like a mirage or a heat wave, she thought logically. If you were really looking, there might be something like a shimmer in the air.) Secondly, if there were no air currents, she could travel for maybe a quarter of a kilometer. If there was a current in the right direction, she could ride it for at least twice that. If the current opposed her, she would only lose ground by going into flight. And that was where the third thing came in handy – since her escape from that horrible stuff that lined her prison room, her speed had more than tripled.

There were probably drawbacks. For instance, she had yet to figure out the reflexive element transition and she had no doubt that her body, though it looked the same, had probably become a lot lighter. _Lighter than air,_ she thought hysterically. _No more off-color jokes about my weight, huh?_

Oddly enough, thinking of Ranma helped to sustain and it was better for her willpower to think on the worse times rather than the year before her disappearance. The last year had almost been normal but that first six months of awful bickering and bouncing between joy and anger was much more effective about keeping her color high. After all, she needed enough encouragement to successfully make it across who knew how many kilometers.

The moon was at its peak by the time Akane's rapid method of transportation put her within sight of the ship. Seeing the Jolly Roger with its straw hat and the ram figurehead, the definitive sign that this was Going Merry, caused her frail body to flood with relief. This in turn broke her concentration and forced her to the ground yet again, this time in a rolling tumble.

If she could see it with her eyes, she was pretty much home free. And that was the truth, wasn't it? Merry was her home now, not the dojo and not the house that held all her childhood memories but a ship with a peculiarly expressive figurehead and a screwball crew. It made her feel safe and almost loved, in a way that living in Nerima never had.

It was odd, the pathways her mind was taking now.

With a final short flight and a jump higher than she'd ever managed before, Akane found herself again of the rear deck of the ship, the blurred lines of her training circle enough to bring the sting of tears to her eyes. Before she could distract herself further, she popped the teal medicine ball into her mouth, careful to break it with her rear molars before swallowing. (Robin claimed that this was done to ensure optimum effectiveness of the medicine but Akane didn't really get the logic but, hey, when in Rome…)

By the time the medicine reached her stomach, Akane's legs felt like gelatin, all quivery and unstable. She crumbled to the deck with a soft but solid thud and she couldn't be bothered to worry about the flare of pain in her abdomen. A numb sort of warmth was spreading through her body and she smiled a little as the world grew dark yet again.

"Gotta stop… this fainting thing," she murmured around a tongue that felt too big inside her small mouth.

A few seconds later, though it could have been minutes or hours, she could feel the muffled pressure of someone turning her over. It was as if someone had encased her in marshmallow fluff – she could sort of feel being handled because the sedative didn't affect the really deep nerves. Her eyes opened and she could tell that her head was still turned to the side because she could see the wood of the deck and medical supplies scattered around her and what she thought was a pair of booted feet except they were kind of… translucent?

A ghost?

"Don't worry." At the sound of the voice, something that was a little like warm wind passing through fluttering drapes, Akane struggled to turn her head and succeeded just barely. Whatever it was, its features seemed kind of unfinished, like a half-done Pinocchio, but the mouth was gentle and smiling. "I'll take care of you."

"Okay," she said aloud, her bewilderment barely heard around her exhaustion. Internally, the confusion was cushioned by the sedative's numbing powers. _Great, now I'm hallucinating,_ she thought idly before she again knew no more.

* * *

Vivi watched Chopper as he muttered and paced.

It was the third morning since Luffy had defeated Crocodile and the civil war had been put to a stop. The rain hadn't lasted long but it was enough. Now, to avoid the decision that was close to drive her to frustrated tears, Vivi concentrated on the crew.

Everyone but her and Chopper were still asleep. Vivi attributed her pre-dawn wakefulness to years of rising early for princess-like duties and the past two years without any real kind of continuous schedule. If the signs were correct, she was afraid that Chopper wasn't getting much sleep, if any at all.

"Is Luffy okay?" she whispered softly into the darkness of the room.

The small reindeer emitted some kind of strangled gasp and whirled around. Okay, he hadn't known she was awake. His wide eyes were frightened for half a moment but then he looked at her and nodded. "He's fine. His body is mostly healed. I think he'll wake up sometime today."

"You're worried," Vivi stated, her large eyes searching for the reason in his face.

Chopper shifted from foot to foot. "So're you," he mumbled, not wanting to voice his concern. She looked closer and it was like he was trying to lock his worry down. But he was a doctor and when they were concerned, it was very important.

His statement caused her to blush a little. A princess shouldn't show her emotion so freely that another could notice. "It's just princess stuff."

"Tell me," he prompted immediately. She knew it was a ploy to get her thoughts off his own worries but she wanted to tell somebody.

"Okay, but you have to promise to tell me what's bothering you," she said, trying her best to use her commanding voice (which was, admittedly, not that commanding).

Vivi took a deep breath and paused, thinking of how to start. "I love you guys. You're nakama and going on adventures with you is more than fun. It was like being part of something again." She stopped to look at the window and seeing the land that she loved there. "But I love my country and the people here. I'm a princess – I was raised to know what my people need and the best ways to give them that. I'm torn."

Chopper settled himself in front of her, his eyes turned up at her. "None of us can help you with that decision, you know that. It's your decision." Vivi gaped at the reindeer but he didn't seem to notice. She had no idea that he contained as much wisdom as he seemed to be spouting. "I'm sure your family wants you here and the crew will want you out on the sea with us. But remember, we will accept whatever decision you may make. You don't have to please anyone but yourself."

Vivi could feel tears leaking out of her eyes. "Oh, Chopper. That's so touching." She sniffed gently, using the flat of her palms to brush her cheeks clear of the moisture. "Your turn."

"I lied."

The princess automatically looked to the captain, alarm flaring in her eyes. "You mean…?" She didn't want to finish the thought, the niggling fear in her mind that Crocodile had indeed been too much for Luffy.

"About Akane," the reindeer clarified in a pained whisper. "She's not as… okay as I may have suggested."

"What?" Vivi shrieked. She immediately clapped her hand over her mouth, her eyes looking at the others' sleeping forms. Her shoulders released some tension when none of them seemed to move.

It wasn't until she turned her attention back to him that she realized that Chopper had jumped up and placed his hooves over her mouth as well. "She didn't want to worry anyway, she said as much. She wouldn't even let me complete a full examination." He pulled his hooves back from her face and clenched them together in a very human gesture. "I don't know. Maybe she thought I would find something I wouldn't like."

"He had her for a week, more or less," Vivi murmured in the darkness. "He could have done anything."

They settled into an uneasy silence, both concerned but unable to do much about that. Against the far wall, Zoro sat unmoving, the whites of his eyes almost glowing in the deep darkness that occurred just before dawn, his jaw clenched in impotent fury. However, Crocodile had already been dealt with and there was nothing more that could be done.


	12. The Healing Process

**A/N: Okay, just fair warning: Akane may be written very slightly out of character in this chapter. However, just remember, in all the times she's been kidnapped before, she's never really been hurt. I'm riding a thin line between Strong Akane and Slight Shattered Akane. Hope everyone likes!**

* * *

Robin had to keep reminding herself that this was necessary as the crew put her through the considerable inquiries. She kept her calmest face and learned all their names and bribed and cajoled until all but one remained. Akane had helped her prepare for this as soon as she'd set foot on the ship.

Except for that first day, when Robin had found the girl unconscious on the rear deck, she had remained mostly wakeful and lucid. While Akane had been grateful for the older woman's presence, something that was quite obvious, she'd known that the rest of the crew would not be quite as forgiving. She even remembered how Akane had stated the ways to win them over, openly giving her their weaknesses. It surprised Robin how well she knew them, despite her own admitted short time (roughly three weeks) with them.

_{"Luffy's the easiest. Give him a halfway reasonable argument and he'll go along with it. Sanji's already on your side because you're so beautiful. He could never not take the side of a woman anyway. If you can make Usopp laugh, you're golden. Same with Nami and valuables. She's like my sister that way, only seeing… Beli signs and nothing else. Zoro will be very difficult – he's very smart and automatically suspicious, considering you were the enemy. I'm not sure about the reindeer but I'm sure you'll figure it out pretty fast."}_

Standing on the rear deck with Zoro, she wondered how exactly to win over the swordsman. Maybe it would just take time. Time and proof of her sincerity, most likely. It was then, wrapped in these thoughts, that she heard the soft creak of the door to the girls' room open and turned around to see Akane stepping up onto the rear deck.

It was startling, her speed. Even weakened, for her weakness seemed to still be increasing ever incrementally, she was very quick now. It was probably the wind abilities inherent in her flesh, Robin reasoned. Speaking of that, the woman noticed that there was something wrong – it was like the girl was coming apart, her skin giving way to the air shimmer. Moments later, as Akane sat within a blurred circle on the deck, it was gone as the girl sank into a meditative state.

"Akane…" Zoro started, stepping toward the dark-haired girl.

Robin immediately bloomed an arm off the railing near him and gripped him just above the elbow, restraining him. He turned on her with fierce eyes but she merely shook her head. "Don't touch her right now." The woman had learned this the hard way when they were still banked on the river.

"Akane!" Luffy came rocketing toward the deck and Robin didn't have time to warn him before he hit the wall of wind that surrounded her and was blown back. It was only his reflexes and his rubber abilities that saved him from a sinking fate. He stretched and grabbed a railing near the figurehead to land back on the deck completely unscathed.

Robin turned her attention back to Akane, watching the telltale signs that she was coming back to herself. She had to believe that this was some sort of defense mechanism and it only occurred during the times that she had woken to find herself alone. She believed that the girl was subconsciously using the wind abilities as a barrier between herself and the world until she felt safe again. It wasn't until she saw Akane's chocolate-brown eyes opening that she finally released Zoro.

"Robin?" she called out, her voice soft and lost.

The archaeologist immediately knelt in front of her, bringing herself down to the girl's level in an attempt to remain as unthreatening as possible. "What happened?"

Akane sniffled and moved to her feet. "It was dark. I was… afraid." She tilted her head down in shame. "I'm sorry."

Robin automatically cursed herself for the misstep. Akane had been asleep for hours, sleeping through Mister Two's departure and the Marine attack both. She had hoped that she would remain unconscious during this entire process. "Akane, it's not your fault," she said consolingly.

"What the hell was that?" Zoro asked in a sharp voice.

Akane inhaled quickly, obviously taking in the world around her. Robin watched as she looked at all their faces and her heart dropped to her stomach when the girl immediately fled back into the room, faster than her own eyes could follow. The only evidence of her location was the slamming of the door. "Little Doctor," Robin called out. "Could you…?"

His eye still wary of the new element, namely Robin herself, the small reindeer followed the jittery girl into the room. The archaeologist wanted to follow herself to watch his progress but knew there were yet more questions to be answered. Sighing, she turned her full attention to the remaining crew.

"What did you do to her?" Zoro demanded, his voice harsh and accusing.

"It was what Crocodile did to her!" she snapped back, her anger flaring slightly at his tone. She took a breath and forced herself to calm, envisioning the language of the poneglyphs in her mind's eye. "I know Luffy fought him and that was horrible but he had her for a week. She was tortured extensively every day, more than once each day. She's been barely keeping her mind together this whole time, letting her body suffer instead."

"But it's over now," Luffy interjected. "Crocodile's gone."

While the captain likely didn't quite understand, Nami's gasp implied that she did. "Oh, God, Akane… Is she okay?"

"She will be," Robin murmured, hoping her voice projected the confidence she didn't quite feel. "The room he kept her in was very dark. Because of her injuries, especially the last ones, I've been insisting that she sleep on a bed."

"The last ones?" Zoro echoed softly. "You say that like it's important." It was clear that he wanted to know why.

Robin closed her eyes, suddenly remembering all that blood and Akane's smile, her insistence that she had bested the Shichibukai in whatever game it was that he played. "His hook went through her shoulder and she has a deep gash right about here," she answered, gesturing to the left of her navel for the second injury.

Zoro swallowed thickly, a movement Robin caught out of the corner of her eye. "Are all of her injuries like that?" There was some emotion there and she couldn't quite identify it. Sympathy, maybe guilt?

"No." She was quick to reassure them. "During the last session, she'd gathered enough energy to dodge him – quite effectively, I imagine. He paid her back in kind."

"What was it she did after she came out just now?" Usopp asked suddenly. Robin got the distinct impression that he wanted to get off the topic of just how badly Akane had been hurt. "I mean, Luffy was thrown across the ship like a ragdoll. That _was_ Akane, right?"

"It was," Zoro agreed, his voice level and flat and his eyes pinning Robin.

It was then that Robin fully realized her friendship with Akane had spoiled her greatly, for the suspicion was particularly irksome rather than the familiar territory it should have been. "She ate the Kaze Kaze Fruit."

Zoro arched an eyebrow and she could tell her was thinking she had phrased it as if it was more voluntary than it had likely been, which was true. But Nami was the one to speak. "He called her a powerful tool. Crocodile did," she clarified when Luffy's face remained blank. "Like she was something to be used."

Robin merely nodded shallowly, idly wondering how Crocodile had gotten to that place – from a strong pirate and a law unto himself to a power-hungry menace. Maybe imprisonment would do him some good.

* * *

"Your name is Chopper?" Akane asked softly, the lost quality of her voice having faded during her instinctual escape from the eyes of the crew. When the little reindeer doctor had followed her, wielding an equally small blue backpack as a symbol of peace, she couldn't help but feel like it was the first step of her readjustment to life on Merry.

With a succinct nod as an answer, Chopper instructed her to lay on the floor following the removal of her clothes save, of course, for her underwear. Being shy in this situation would just be silly – she'd been just as unclothed before Doctor Tofu for her annual physicals. "Did he do anything… sexual in nature to you?" he asked, his face twisting in disgust at the mere thought.

Scoffing a short laugh and feeling her own face mimic his, Akane shook her head. "It was pretty straightforward torture." She turned her eyes on him, watching sharply as his visual examination caught every fading bruise and healing cut. "Everyone's okay?" She released a sigh of relief at his absentminded nod. Besides her own trauma that often fed on the weakness of a sleeping mind, her mental fracture had much to do with day after day of knowing nothing of their health states, not knowing if they were even dead or alive.

"How do you feel?"

"Weak, more than I should be. I probably have an infection."

Chopper began to prod her body gently, his eyes sharp on her reactions. "Why do you think that?"

She touched her shoulder wound, which was healing properly and quite rapidly, and then floated a hand over the abdominal gash. It was inflamed and seeped clear fluid, something that was definitely not blood. "I know the signs," she told him simply.

Reaching into the bag, he grinned at her and pulled out a small jar. It contained what seemed to Akane to be translucent white ointment, scarily similar to the kind she would use to treat cuts and scrapes back in the technologically-superior-to-this-place Nerima. He took a healthy dollop of it onto one of his hooves and began to slather it over the infected wound. "You have a lot of medical knowledge."

She blushed at the compliment, turning her head away from the reindeer's grinning face. "Not really," she murmured.

"Why did you run away?" This time, Chopper's voice was small and beseeching, causing the girl to the look at him again. Until this moment, she hadn't properly realized how much like a child the doctor was.

"Shame," Akane answered after a long moment. "If I hadn't been so sick, I wouldn't have been caught, you know? I don't want them to know how weak I was."

He handed her a small, bright yellow ball. "It will stabilize your system and make it easier for you to heal," he informed her when she looked at it doubtfully.

"No more sedatives? Please," she added, her face twisted in desperate askance. He nodded in consent and she took the medicine in turn.

"Nightmares?" Chopper asked.

Shrugging, Akane stood and reclothed herself. "Some. Sometimes it's this twisted version of Crocodile but mostly just darkness. It's from when I died."

"You died?" The little reindeer squeaked with shock and moved to examine her again, this time with a more intent eye.

She merely pushed him away just a little. "I died… briefly a little over a year ago. It's the main reason I don't like sleeping in the dark. This new experience just made the dislike worse."

Chopper looked up at her with wide eyes. "They don't know, do they?" he asked softly.

"Not a one," she conceded. "I'd like to keep it that way. Do I still have to stay in here?"

He shook his head. "You should be fine. Besides the infection and a couple cracked ribs, you're completely well on the mend. Just… don't do anything strenuous for the next couple days. Promise?"

Akane smiled, her face lighting genuinely with the expression. "Of course." She strode across the room and opened the door. "Thanks for taking care of me, Chopper."

The reindeer fairly swayed with the compliment, though his words didn't quite agree with his action. "Don't think that complimenting me will make me happy."

Her soft giggle enshrouded him far longer than she was actually within sight. She was careful to keep herself at a slow but somehow graceful pace, afraid that her new speed could be considered strenuous. Within moments, she still found herself on the rear deck and turned to face the rest of the ship, surveying the other crew members. Sanji was out of sight, likely busying himself in the galley, and both Usopp and Luffy were sitting on the railing, the picture of quiet fishermen; Robin and Nami were both on the middle deck, the former reading out of a collection of books they'd brought back from Alabasta and the latter quietly alternating with conversing with Robin and keeping a check on both the weather and the Log Pose on her wrist. Akane could tell that all of them were casting sidelong glances at her, the girls the only ones that could truly keep the worry from their faces.

It was nice, she thought, and a little bit irritating. Deciding a little rest couldn't do her wrong, she sat and leaned against the railing across the deck from Zoro. The swordsman himself seemed to be sleeping but little details jumped out at her. One hand rested on his swords and was applying the smallest bit of pressure; his cheek jumped with a small muscle tic; and finally, his eyes were completely still, which Akane knew meant that he wasn't in a dream state. However, when he spoke, it still startled her a little.

"I'm sorry." He half-opened one eye and still managed a catch her eyes in an intense gaze.

Akane could feel the blankness of her own face. What did Zoro have to apologize for? Did something happen while she was gone? "For what?" she asked finally.

"For leaving you alone on the winter island. If I'd been protecting you, it never would have happened." He took a deep breath. "For that, I'm sorry."

She could feel her hand clench into fists and knew that the anger building in her was not really Zoro's fault. She was angry at herself for being so weak and angry at Crocodile for the ways in which he had hurt her, had attempted to control her if Robin's reasoning was correct. But most of all, she could hear Ranma's voice in her head, insults and comments with which she thought she had long ago reconciled herself.

_You're too weak. You just get in the way. If I wasn't here to protect you, you'd be dead. Akane, don't you get it? You'll never be at my level._

"Protect me?" she fairly growled, moving with achingly slow movements to stand. "As if I'm a child, as if I can't be trusted? Is that it?" There was a part of her that was trying to bottle the fury before it exploded but that bottle had long ago been filled to the brim and continued to leak misdirected anger.

"Akane, no." Zoro opened both of his eyes and stood as well. She could clearly see the guilt and concern swimming in his dark eyes. "I didn't say that."

Her logic finally managed a foothold through the red haze of her anger and she took a breath. However, her emotions were still running high. So, even as her anger stopped leaking outward, it turned in on her with the ferocity of a tidal wave. Not wanting to show her weakness yet again, her flight response kicked in and she literally relocated herself via wind flight to the crow's nest.

At least, this high up, no one would see her tears.


	13. Working Through the Pain

Nami looked up at the whoosh of air that ruffled both her and Robin's hair, partially afraid that the weather was altering abruptly as it so often did on the Grand Line. But the sky was the same, mostly clear with steady winds. She frowned just a bit more when their newest member moved to stand.

"What's going on?"

"It's Akane," the archaeologist murmured softly. "I haven't really seen her flight in action yet but it was her." She proved the point by pointing up at the crow's nest, where Nami could see just a hint of black hair.

"What happened?"

Robin passed a hand over her face and shook her head. "I wish I knew."

It occurred to Nami that maybe Robin had never really endured the kind of pain Akane had gone through these past days. While she had no doubts that the woman's past had been difficult, dealing with beatings and their emotional ramifications could be something else altogether. After a moment of deliberation, Nami gently pushed Robin down into her chair. "I'll help her," she reassured her softly.

First things first, though, she needed to find out why she'd gone running off – flying off? – in the first place. She stomped up to the rear deck and handed Zoro a baleful glare. "What did you do?"

For his part, Zoro was still staring at the spot where Akane had been just moments before. "I… apologized. For not protecting her," he added, finally looking into Nami's face.

Nami rolled her eyes and tossed a comment over her shoulder before returning to the center of the ship. "God, you're so dense." Once she was at the mast, she began to climb, idly thinking how Akane's new abilities made this trip negligent. It was a little unfair, but only a little.

She had already identified the problem, at least mostly. Akane was very prideful, Nami knew, as many experienced fighters could be. So, of course, showing weakness was almost taboo. Being tortured by someone who was obviously stronger, that could be hard to swallow even if you had no personal dignity. After all, no one liked handing over control of their life.

Nami had some experience in this area. Being under Arlong's thumb for ten years, feeling his control from even a hundred kilometers away, she knew what that felt like. Like Zoro said, Akane had been sick and it probably had been enough to sap her considerable strength. Maybe if not for that sickness, she would have been able to fight back. But again, the navigator's own experience told her that would have only made it that much worse.

"Akane?" The navigator peeked her head over the outer edge of the crow's nest.

The girl in question scrubbed at her face with the flat of her palms as soon as she heard her name. "Nami? What's wrong?"

Smiling encouragingly, the redhead hopped into the lookout point, seating herself near Akane but giving her enough space so as to not be suffocating. "I could ask the same thing."

Pain etched itself across Akane's face and Nami could feel her own familiar ache echo the expression. "I don't really want to talk about it."

"I know," the navigator conceded softly. "Did I ever tell you about the Fish-Man Pirates?"

"The who in the what now?" Akane asked, her head turned up now to face Nami and her eyes lit with brilliant curiosity. "What are fish-men?"

"Pretty much what they sound like," she answered easily. "They look sort of human but their fingers and toes are webbed and some of their traits were more characteristic of sea animals. Arlong, for instance, had a swordfish nose."

"You didn't like him." Nami was slightly surprised by Akane's instant remark, as she had thought she'd been hiding her dislike for him pretty well. The dark-haired girl laughed softly at her expression. "You're just like Nabiki. I learned how to read her pretty early on."

The redhead smiled softly. "Your sister?"

Akane nodded. "Arlong was the leader?" she asked, pushing her attention back to the Fish-Man Pirates.

"He was my Crocodile," Nami told her. Patting her arm with the tangerine-pinwheel tattoo, she continued. "He even branded me with his mark and forced me to become his cartographer. I made a deal with him – until I could come up with one hundred million Beli, I would draw up maps for him and technically be part of his crew." She frowned as she found that her fists were clenched at her sides. "They were horrible to me and I was so young. In the end, he didn't keep his end and Luffy pretty much destroyed him."

"Being nakama is serious for him, huh?" Akane asked.

Nami nodded. "Very much. I just wanted you to know that you don't have to feel alone." She looked around, feeling the lag in the conversation and looking for something to distract Akane. After a moment, she felt the Clima-Tact held in the loop of her skirt and smiled. "Hey, wanna see the weapon Usopp made for me?"

She nodded, smiling in gratitude. "Although, I think that's less 'made for you' and more 'you had him make'." Laughing, Nami assembled the blue weather weapon expertly and handed it over to Akane. She hefted the staff-like weapon, bouncing it in her hand. "It's got a good weight, heavy enough to do some damage but light enough for someone lacking upper body strength." She started to twirl it but it thunked against the mast, proving that the crow's nest was not the place to practice with a weapon.

Before Nami could suggest they take the weapon down to the deck, Akane had already jumped over the edge, landing on the deck without so much as a sound. "Hey, that's really not fair!" she called to the other girl.

Akane grinned sheepishly up at the navigator. "Sorry. The flight thing's kind of an instinct now. I used it to get from Rainbase to here after I escaped." As she waited for Nami to reach the deck in the slow mortal way, she spun the weapon around her body like a baton, her eyes watching it sharply and careful not to slam it against the wood of the deck. Because it was an Usopp-made weapon, that implied that it did something besides being slightly useful if you needed to bop someone upside the head.

Nami came to her side at a leisurely pace. "You look really comfortable with that."

Akane nodded, tossing the Clima-Tact in the air so she could grip it on the lower portion. She jabbed and blocked and parried as if she was fencing. "Yeah, Daddy made sure I was trained in all kinds of weapons. You know, because I'm a girl."

The redhead made a face, sticking out her tongue and closing her eyes in a picture of distaste. "That's awesome. I just barely managed to win my fight with Miss Doublefinger and only because of Usopp's last-resort configuration."

"Do I want to know?" Akane asked rhetorically. Laughing, she continued immediately. "Want to see something cool?" Glad that she was able to get her mind off her ordeal, Nami nodded enthusiastically. Akane grinned back at her. "Hey, Usopp! Stop pretending to fish and get over here."

The boy in question jerked suddenly. "Hey, I'm not pretending!" he rejoined, slightly offended and a little embarrassed that he'd been caught.

"Are so," she replied, sticking out her tongue. After a moment, he pulled his line back up to the pole and hopped off the railing, his eyebrow arched at her. "Can you go up to the grove and start shooting at me, harmless stuff like your Ketchup and Tabasco Stars?" He nodded and moved to where she directed. "Robin, you might want to get over here. They're gonna rebound."

With a silent nod, the archaeologist folded up her chair and relocated herself slightly behind the two girls. Nami noticed that Luffy had turned around on his perch to watch and Zoro now stood on the stairs that led to the rear deck to do the same. Smirking just a little, the navigator turned her attention back to Akane, whose eyes were closed and hands held the Clima-Tact diagonally across her torso.

Suddenly, without warning or Usopp's usual calls, small red and brown balls began emerge from the grove at a frighteningly quick speed. It was one of the few times that Nami had actually witnessed Usopp's true skill. However, Akane blocked and rebounded all of them with a precision that showed years of training. Oddly enough, the accuracy of her rebounded Stars kind of resulted in a rat-a-tat-tat sound against the door to the galley.

Finally, Sanji opened the door and stepped out. "Okay, I said dinner…" He trailed off when the last projectile, a slightly over-large Ketchup Star, hit him square in the forehead.

Akane stopped, her face wide with surprise, and then broke into hysterical giggles. Within moments, the rest of the crew followed her lead. Even Sanji and Robin smiled and shook their heads.

* * *

Akane quietly closed the door to the girls' room, her movements achingly slow so that the hinges and doorframe would make little to no sound. Though the day had gone a long way toward making her feel much better, there was still something bothering her. Namely, the maybe-ghost that she'd thought to be a hallucination just a few days ago.

A short conversation with Chopper had proved to her that the sedative didn't cause hallucinations. Just the mere instance of her asking about it got the small doctor all anxious again. She had waved him off immediately, implying that maybe she'd been dreaming; after all, her days and nights had begun to blur into one as her time with Crocodile had increased.

It was bad enough that she'd let the thing about her death slip. She didn't think she could handle Chopper hovering over her for the rest of her days.

A soft snore caught Akane's attention and she turned her attention to the crow's nest. The thought no more than passed through her mind before she found herself in that very location. Rolling her eyes at her own lack of control, she examined Zoro's sleeping body. She wasn't sure why it was he usually pulled lookout duty and she found it endlessly amusing that he was usually asleep throughout the night.

Not that there was much out on the seas right now, she conceded as her attention to the horizon. They often anchored during the night because of the tendency of the Grand Line to be fickle, whether one was referring to weather or currents. She honestly thought that the swordsman didn't argue about this duty because he could sleep without worry of interruptions.

More consciously this time, Akane directed her wind flight to deposit her on the rear deck. She avoided her training circle, as she had recently redrawn it with chalk. Choosing a spot halfway between the circle and the railing, she settled herself on the deck, arranging herself in the lotus position. This particular exercise was something she'd skimped on since her transition between worlds.

Meditation. As her father had drilled into her head, it was the crux of all ki techniques. After all, if you didn't know the feel of your own energy, how could you ever hope to use your ki efficiently? Despite his own shortcomings when it came to ki control, Tendo Soun had turned out to be a remarkable teacher at the skill.

Even though Akane had never been able to match Ranma's ability to learn difficult techniques in a matter of days (sometimes hours), she wasn't shabby at what she had managed to learn in the last year. After all, she knew that the martial artist prodigy learned everything almost all by instinct and muscle memory whereas she had a tendency to look for the science behind the Art. (Ultimately unhelpful to some extent with ki.)

She had officially mastered controlling her battle aura and imbuing weapons with her own ki. (The experiments with that technique were few and far between, for her ki turned out to be rather powerful.) Among her research into new techniques and the following beginning steps into figuring them out were armoring techniques that would keep a blow from penetrating an invisible shield and something a ki master from hundreds of years ago termed 'seeing the unseen'.

Akane had never really been sure if this… other sight was the result of seeing another dimension or if one would actually be witnessing the supernatural realms. She shuddered slightly – thoughts of ghosts and ethereal, malevolent spirits still frightened her some. The good thing about this world is that it seemed a little less inhabited by (or at least, less aware of) its supernatural side.

She did not doubt that there were supernatural beings in this world.

With a thin exhalation, Akane closed her eyes finally let her mind empty, draining out the pain and anger and joy and fondness until all that was left was her physical shell and the windswept purple center of her own energy. She waited until she was satisfied that nothing was left, that she was unhindered by emotion before she allowed herself to concentrate on the words written on that ancient scroll that she had read so long ago.

_Beyond this world lies another, dark and bleak. Beyond our own sight lies something more, more wonderful and far more meaningful than can be comprehended. To connect to this world, one needs to know oneself and be able to fully let go to both the body and the assumptions of how everything works._

If her time with Crocodile had given her anything, it was the ability to escape from her own body for a time. The torture itself, something she had never endured with any other kidnapping, had gone so far as to shatter her just enough that everything seemed inconsistent. Her new abilities, such as they were, only fortified this way of thinking.

Her mind filled with trepidation, Akane opened her eyes…

And was immediately assaulted with the vision of that same translucent, half-finished thing prancing around the rear deck. She automatically scrambled backwards as she strangled a scream that was trying to claw out of her throat, her fear of ghosts gripping her heart.

"Hey, you can see me?" The… whatever-it-was stopped its solo dance and was at Akane's side in an instant, interfering with her personal space as it peered at her.

"Gh-gh…" She trailed off, a rather irritated part of her brain screaming at her to overcome the stupid fear and to do it now. "Ghost?"

The entity laughed, the sound both musical and haunting. "Nope. Don't you recognize me, Akane?"

The girl in question shook her head vehemently.

"I'm Merry!"

Akane frowned slightly, her body relaxing slightly as confusion began to overtake the fear. "The ship?" Finally, she looked around, taking note how everything seemed darker and grayer here, wherever 'here' was. "Where am I?"

Merry sat next to Akane and made a wide gesture. "The spirit world. It's a bit bleak now but when the Grand Line goes under the dark, our side is more susceptible to those that would do us harm."

"The spirit side?" Akane asked in clarification. The spirit nodded. "Okay, I don't get that but… okay. Why do you look kind of… not done?"

Merry had begun to brood over the skyline but suddenly turned back to her with a broad smile. "That's easy. I'll never be finished."

"Never?" Akane echoed.

"Not till I'm dead, but that's the difference between things and people. Things tend to emit a spirit until death and when they are finally complete, nothing remains. However, people don't release their spirit until they are complete. I personally think that's why ghosts are so scary."

The girl snickered a little. "You think ghosts are scary?"

However, the spirit either hadn't been listening or had been sidetracked, for it didn't answer. Akane turned, about to ask what the matter was, when she caught a flash of something dark and felt the sudden pressure of warmth on her forehead. "You have to go back now." It was only instinct that told her that the warmth belonged to Merry, for the spirit had been too quick for her to catch the movement.

Suddenly, as if nothing had happened aside from a mere loss of balance, Akane was back in the physical world, dark color filling back into every corner of her vision. Of course, the force of Merry sending her back to the physical world had actually resulted in pushing her to her back. "That was weird," she murmured breathily and continued to lie there, trying to figure what just happened.

* * *

**A/N: Again, I'm taking a little bit of artistic license here with the Klabautermann (i.e. the spirit of Going Merry). Also, I have sort of a dilemma: should I write a chapter that takes place during the Rainbow Mist arc or just jump forward to Jaya? I welcome input and feedback and thank you very much for those of you that have been reviewing.**

**A/N 2: (6 July 2012 - 1542 hrs) I did a slight edit. tuatara pointed out that I might have missed some things. Thanks!**


	14. Apologies

**A/N: Onward to Akane/Zoro moments! This entire chapter takes place on Papanapple Island, which is the island during the episode where Robin learns about Chopper's past - episode 131, if I remember correctly.**

* * *

Akane flicked her gaze over to Zoro for what had to be at least the tenth time. And they weren't really thick in the pineapple-like fruit-bearing trees yet.

Sighing softly, she turned her mind back slightly. Her confusion of the events of the night prior notwithstanding, she was doing pretty well. Nami had woken in the early morning to find this island within sight, a place Sanji fondly referred to as Papanapple Island. That, as a matter of course, was a play on the not-quite-pineapples. These fruits were very similar to pineapples in that they were of the same coloring and general shape but the thick skin of papanapples were much softer and the stiff green stems much shorter than that of actual pineapples.

Of course, even the thought of pineapples made her a touch homesick. Damned Principal Kuno…

Akane found it interesting how the homesickness kind of came and went. Little things, such as the pineapple-ish fruits Sanji had sent them to collet, could send her mind down a brief spiral of Nerima memories and a sudden urge for soft beds and shopping malls. However, it usually passed pretty quickly, often because even just the way a breeze ruffled her hair would remind how much more freedom she had here. No arranged engagements, no fathers pushing her to master the Art and being that much more disappointed when she fell just a little bit short, no unnecessary dance of feminine modesty and masculine strength that she was quite sure she'd never master.

Letting out another sigh, she set her two large baskets to the ground, idly noticing that Zoro had done the same with his. It didn't take much more observational skill to realize the reason he was beginning to unsheathe his swords was to use a santoryu technique in order to retrieve the papanapples quickly and easily. Pressing her lips together, she pressed her open palms together and bowed her head deep enough that her thumbs pressed against the bridge of her nose and her forehead touched the tips of her index fingers. "Zoro," she called quietly.

The swordsman was about to grip the handle of his favored katana with his teeth when she got his attention. Frowning at her serious posture, he put the katana back in his hand but not back in its sheath. After all, one of his techniques would be the fastest way to collect enough of these fruits that the Love Cook wanted. "Akane?"

"Gomen nasai," she said finally, her voice wavering slightly. Though she had gotten a little better at restraining herself from doing things that required this later act, apologies themselves still fully sucked.

Zoro's frown deepened further and he was trying desperately to remember if she had done anything recently. Well, there was when she had yelled at him for all of five seconds the day before… but that hardly seemed worthy of an apology, at least in his eyes. He stared at her silently, hoping she would continue and help him figure out this situation.

Akane flinched slightly, thinking the silence heralded anger. "I shouldn't have snapped at you," she continued, the words flowing out of her mouth in a bubbling ramble. "It wasn't like you actually did anything to me. I've been trying to control this whole anger thing but sometimes my rage speaks before my mind can catch up. I'm really, really—"

The feeling of warm hands on her shoulders caused her to cringe back, her time with Crocodile still not completely gone from her mind. It occurred to her like a voice in the back of her head that it might never go away. However, Zoro noticed the motion and said in a quiet voice, as if he was trying to coax a small lamb, "Akane, look at me."

She looked up, her courage deflated somewhat. Inside yelled a voice that was furious – how could she be so weak, so affected by what that—that damned Shichibukai had done to her? Zoro's half-smile helped to quiet the voice somewhat, but maybe not quite enough. "What?" The response came out a bit more snappish than she meant.

"It's okay," he told her. "You're emotional or whatever. It's expected, I guess. I've never been tortured for days on end, so I wouldn't know." He pulled away from her and placed his swords in their proper places. "Come on, let's get this over with, huh?"

Akane darted her eyes warily between the papanapples in the trees and Zoro's prepared stance. "Do you really think that's a good idea?"

Before she could do anything about it, even something so little as settling more solidly into a more physical body than her Devil Fruit ability had given her, Zoro called out the words and completed something similar to a single frontal attack with the swords that he held in his hands. "Santoryu Tornado!"

The slice of the attack, the part that could actually cause harm, slid through Akane as if she wasn't even there and she grinned. Maybe she'd finally figured out the whole being-the-element-of-your-Fruit thing that Crocodile had been trying to brutally pummel into her instincts. The next moment ripped the smile off her face as the high speed winds that accompanied this particular attack forced her off the ground and high into one of the trees.

Though she managed to muffle the scream before it erupted from her mouth, she still clung to the surface of the tree and clenched her eyes closed, waiting for the attack to finish its final pass. She finally cracked an eye open when she heard Zoro's satisfied chuckle. Even though she was several meters above him, she could see that the falling fruits had filled his basket. She flicked her gaze over to her baskets, which were just out of the range of Zoro's attack, and thought it a little unfair that she would have to fill hers manually.

As the next wave of papanapples shook loose of their tenuous grips on the trees, raining Zoro with the consequence of his foolhardiness, she smirked at the fruits that dropped into her baskets and thought, _Well, that settles that._

As she relaxed and finally flowed – for her wind flight was beginning to become a fluid movement, not merely a hard whoosh or a nearly instant relocation of her body – down to the ground, Akane began to laugh at the situation. There was a pile of papanapples on the ground higher than she was tall, vaguely molded in a way that indicated that Zoro and the basket on his back were buried in the center.

As it was an opportunity to try an idea, Akane concentrated and pulled her hands to her torso in an imitation of Ryoga or Ranma in order to pull her energy to a certain area, holding it for a moment before blasting it at the papanapple pile. She hoped it was enough force to move the pile while not too much at the same time. She didn't want them to blow too far away – that would be a waste of food – and she didn't want to knock Zoro over either.

Fortunately, it was just enough force to clear the swordsman in question all the way to his knees, though she did notice guiltily that some of the fruits had been blown quite far. Shaking his hair loose of some of the leafy bits that had lodged there in the pseudo-avalanche, he eyed her intently. "What was that?"

Shrugging, she grinned brightly. "Kaze Kaze Fruit?" she offered.

Grumbling, Zoro pulled his lower legs out of the pile and climbed over to Akane and her filled baskets. "Maybe that wasn't the best idea I've ever had."

Akane smothered another laugh, silencing the 'I told you so' comment on the tip of her tongue. She pulled one basket on her back and they carried the last one between them. "You think we should come back for the rest?"

He automatically shook his head. "It's bad enough Nami ordered us to collect food as it is."

Smirking, the diminutive martial artist knew exactly what to say. "Well, I can do it on my own, then."

"No," Zoro replied immediately. "I'll help."

That was the one thing that both Sanji and Zoro had in common with her fiancé in Nerima: they would not be outdone, no matter the situation.

* * *

Zoro's eyes snapped open suddenly, waking from the satisfied sleep he'd fallen into following Sanji's dinner. It had consisted of meat – Luffy's favorite, no matter the source – and the 'papanapples' he and Akane had collected. In all, they'd collected close to six baskets of the fruits, whereas both Luffy and Usopp had come back empty. At least, there was nothing for Nami to complain about with that kind of result.

He laid very still, knowing something had to have woke him. Maybe a sound? His proximity alert while sleeping could be really weird if there wasn't any true danger. Finally, after straining his ears past the sound of the crew's snores, he finally heard soft singing.

"Little bird, fold your wings and sleep / I'll keep you safe and warm / Little girl, close your eyes and dream / I'll bar you from all harm…" The singing dwindling down into soft humming before lifting back up to sing the same words.

"Akane?" he whispered softly, lifting himself into a sitting position. Rolling his neck once, he pulled the kinks that sleeping on packed ground sometimes created. "Are you okay?"

Her wide brown eyes glistened at him across the dying fire and he noticed that she had her knees pulled up to her chest. After holding his gaze for a couple seconds, she turned her head away, pressing her forehead down into her knees. He waited for a moment, falling back on the habit of silence to wait out the other person, but threw the instinct aside when her arms tightened around her knees. He'd been around girls just enough to know the difference between crying for attention and crying just because you couldn't bear something any longer.

Crawling quietly around the boundary of the fire itself, he came to a stop beside Akane and knew his instinct was right. Her shoulder vibrated with the force of her shaking but no sound indicated her tears aside from a soft whuffling noise. He sat very still, trying to figure out how to deal with this. He knew he treated Nami with derision and Robin with suspicion because they were both distant mentally. Akane was different somehow, brilliant and strong and spirited. How horrible would it be if Crocodile had broken that spirit?

His posture awkward, he circled his arms around Akane. She tensed immediately, the sounds she had been making cutting off sharply. Zoro kept thinking that he needed to be soft and gentle – this was a hug, not a grapple. Though he had been able to soften his own voice earlier in the day when she had been making that completely unnecessary apology, it was quite a bit more difficult to gentle his limbs.

After a moment, she relaxed and Zoro could feel relief flood his system despite the very alarming situation. When she quieted again and he could tell that she was merely breathing softly, he asked his question again. "Are you okay?" Even the words sounded stupid and useless but he wanted to know.

Akane finally lifted her head and he winced slightly at the sight of her red eyes and the teartracks that ran halfway down her cheeks. "The dark is the worst," she told him softly.

Zoro nodded to himself and pulled away from her. Now that she wasn't crying, he felt extremely uncomfortable embracing her and settled himself in a sitting position a few inches away from her. "Robin said something about… he kept you in a dark room?" When she just nodded, he frowned and asked another, more open-ended question. "What were you singing?"

She smiled, her lips curving into a happy expression. "It was a lullaby my mother used to sing to me." 'Used to'? Zoro knew that was important, like a large sign proclaiming 'this way lies deceased family members'. "I think she made it up. I could never find it anywhere."

Feeling at a loss, the swordsman just nodded, his dark eyes searching her face. Where could he go from there? With an almost desperate need to continue, though he was most definitely not a conversationalist, he blurted out the first thing that popped in his head, something that had absolutely nothing to do with Akane or that dark week or dead mothers. "We met Luffy's brother when we were in Alabasta." He winced slightly at the mention of the desert kingdom – okay, _almost_ absolutely nothing to do with any of that.

Akane's eyes just brightened, the last traces of tears seeming to disappear and her soft smile broadening into a grin. "Really? Can you… Will you tell me about it?"

He grinned back at her, feeling that teetering concern in his chest finally relax. As he was not accustomed to worrying about others, it had been making him feel vaguely nauseous. "Well, he was already in Nanohana by the time we got there, from what I was able to tell. He was tracking down this pirate, Blackbeard."

She furrowed her brow slightly. "What for?"

Zoro shrugged slightly, clearly broadcasting his disinterest in something that had nothing to do with him. "Broke a rule, I guess. They're part of the Whitebeard Pirates, so it was probably a pretty big rule."

Her eyes glinting with an anticipation that he didn't quite understand, she was very intent with her next question. "What does he look like?"

Confused by the level of her intensity, Zoro nonetheless felt compelled to comply to her question to the best of his ability and his forehead wrinkled slightly as he searched his memory for the most accurate description of Ace. "A lot like Luffy. Slightly taller, a little paler and his hair is a little longer. He wore a red beaded necklace and had this weird tattoo on his arm."

Akane's curiosity piqued at that. "What was it?"

"Well, it's his name but it looks like a screw-up." Tracing the letters down his arm, he tried to visualize it for Akane. "Between the A and C, there's an S that's crossed out."

She frowned slightly. "You think it's significant of something?"

After a moment of thought, Zoro just shook his head. "Like I said, probably just a mistake. Oh!" He snapped his fingers as he remembered something about Ace that she might be interested in. "They call him Fire Fist Ace because he ate the Mera Mera Fruit."


	15. A Gift for Luffy

It had taken a little over a week and Akane was now putting the finishing touches on it.

It was early morning, the sun barely having peeked over the horizon, and she was currently the only one on deck. Her mind was on the warning she'd received from Merry the night before as she dotted the face she was painting with dark freckles. Especially with how the spirit realm was always dark with gray shades, it had made what he said even more ominous.

"_Continuing to visit this realm will forsake your Observation Haki. Though some of the others tell me it is not awakened in you yet, coming here forces it to bloom but your observations will be restricted to this realm, allowing you to see and interact with spirits at all times. You must make a choice."_

She thought about this, wondering about haki itself. Was it anything like ki? Those techniques weren't a part of the Art that came naturally to her, not like it did to Ranma and Ryoga, but she could still manage. Of course, this was a completely different world from her life in Tokyo and the rules changed, even though the abilities seemed to transition quite easily. As far as she could tell, the ki techniques that she had mastered still held true here and if she was ever to return home (Kami forbid), she was quite sure the powers of the Kaze Kaze Fruit would transfer completely.

Speaking of her new abilities, Akane had found out that there were new things blossoming every day that had something to do with it. She hadn't created many new attacks with it but it managed to alter her senses. Her hearing was phenomenally altered, allowing her to hear whispered conversations from anywhere on deck if she so wished. (She normally didn't.) The other thing that changed that she actually constantly used was her ability to sense people. After all, when people moved, they created just the slightest bit of wind. This particular sense wasn't refined to the point that she could tell who exactly was moving.

And it was that sense that told her that someone was now approaching her.

"Who is that?"

Akane smiled with relief and looked up at Robin, whose blue eyes traced the lines of the painting. She was afraid that it would be Nami or Zoro or Sanji, each of which had their own annoyances when she was concentrating. The navigator constantly wanted to "talk", which was more commiseration of being abused by stronger parties; the swordsman could not sit still for long periods of time and often fidgeted and looked miserable; and the cook… well, Sanji was a handful even when she felt inviting.

"It's Luffy's brother," she told the archaeologist as she set aside the paintbrush and found a sharpened piece of charcoal. She used the charcoal to sketch out the images before committing to paint and she now did her best to remember exactly how Zoro had described Ace's tattoo.

They sat in silence for a few minutes but Akane could feel the tension, which was odd. Something she had learned in that week everyone tried not to mention was that Robin was often content in silence, mired in her own thoughts. It actually helped most of the time, reminding her of better times in Nerima. After all, the times she had been happiest often happened to coincide with comfortable silences and unsaid words.

"What is it?" she asked finally, exasperated as she set the charcoal down and faced the dark-haired woman.

Robin pressed her lips together and it struck Akane as awkward and nervous. "Why do you trust me?" The words were blurted out, also something that seemed very un-Robin-like.

Akane answered the question with a single arched eyebrow. "You earned it. Why are you asking?"

The older woman's face flashed with annoyance and frustration. She ran a hand through her hair and then fluffed it at the center part so her hair would fall back into place. "It's the swordsman. He doesn't trust me and it's been weeks!"

Smirking gently, Akane refrained from pointing out to Robin how much like a petulant child she sounded. She understood the emotion, though; given how she'd gotten everyone else on her side so easily, how frustrating was it that Zoro was still reticent and aloof? "It's good that he's that way," she reminded her.

When Robin just tilted her head, Akane smiled a broad, close-lipped smile. It was clear to her but then again, she knew Zoro a lot better than the archaeologist. And the painting… that was a little like her secret to success. When she had started the hobby, she had quickly realized why starving artists lost themselves to it with little thought to all else – just the act of painting helped to clear her mind enough to sort through the tangles that often obscured her life.

"He's the first mate. While he has to be the first to support Luffy, he also has to be the first to question any command he might make. Proving yourself to him might take a lot but it'll be worth it," she added, sharing with Robin what she'd figured out some time ago. She herself had wondered why Zoro remained so against the archaeologist when he wasn't ignoring her outright.

"But… I kidnapped you," Robin declared. There was a muddle of self-accusation beneath those four simple words and it wasn't beyond Akane's own capacity to hear it clearly.

"Yes, you are my kidnapper and that might be why it would take a bit longer than absolutely necessary for him to accept you. I don't hold it against you, though, if you were wondering." Finally, Akane picked up her paintbrush again and dipped it in black paint, beginning to darken her sketched characters.

"Why not?" the older woman whispered, her need to know naked in the air.

"I don't know your past but I know you, Robin. You did what you had to. You have to." She looked up from the painting, her eyes staring out into the horizon. "Besides, you risked your position with Croc to help me get away. Why should I hate you for the things that he did?"

Robin's face melted into its normal expression, save for the half-smile that she bestowed on Akane. "You've got a point."

* * *

Luffy sat comfortable on his special seat, the ram figurehead of the Going Merry, and grinned at the horizon. Some days, it was like he could see into forever and what he saw was freedom. Meat for days and the absolute freedom to go where he wanted however he wanted…

He was distracted from the vision when he felt the wind whoosh around him harshly. Glancing quickly at the sea, he saw that it was relatively calm and that left only one option as to the cause of the gale: Akane.

She suddenly appeared before him, her legs folded under her rump and hugging something he couldn't see to her chest. "Awesome!" His eyes gleamed with awe. As he didn't always pay attention, he didn't often get to see her new abilities in action. "So cool!"

For her part, Akane reached forward and adjusted Luffy's straw hat, which had gone a bit askew with the force of her arrival. "Sorry," she apologized immediately. "I'm kind of excited, so it makes with the big winds."

The captain grinned at her, hopefully portraying how much she did _not_ need to apologize with his expression. "What've you got?"

If anything, her grin seemed to broaden and she turned whatever it was around. What she revealed was a painting portrait of Ace, someone he was quite sure she'd never met. "It's a gift," she told him. "Y'know, thanks for beating up the guy that… well, yeah. So… here." With that, she thrust the painting at him, though he noticed she was careful not to release it until he had a good grip on it. After all, they were sitting above quite a lot of water.

Taking the small canvas painting in his head, he marveled at it. It wasn't as detailed as his memory but with him having seen him mere weeks ago, his memory of his brother was still quite sharp. "How…?" He looked up at her again, hoping his eyes asked the question he couldn't quite form with his mouth.

She blushed prettily, ducking her head slightly. His eyes must have revealed the compliment that had been blocked by his confusion as well. "Zoro told me about him on the island with the weird pineapples. I wanted…" She pressed her lips together and took a breath. "It's important that you know how grateful I am."

Remembering their conversation with Crocodile when they had been trapped in that cage that make him weak, Luffy scowled. "I didn't do anything to help you," he muttered, looking down at his brother's face to draw strength.

Akane looked at him again, pinning him with a honey-brown gaze. "If I hadn't gone when I did, I would be dead."

He frowned, his heart jumping suddenly into his throat at the thought of losing her. He really didn't like what loss felt like. "What?" He heard how loud he'd managed to get but was glad that he'd managed to restrain himself down enough to keep his body still.

"I told him you were all dead. After all, I was the only one Robin found on the ship," she added. "And I'm a very good actress when I want to be."

"Even with the…?" Luffy trailed off, not even wanting to say the kinds of things his imagination could come up with. Akane just nodded, a bemused smile on her face. He hugged the painting to his body gently. "Thank you for this."

"Um, I wanted to ask," she started, her expression making it clear she was glad the subject had changed. "What's with the crossed-out S?"

Luffy could feel his face soften with fondness and he pushed the urge to cry aside. "It's for Sabo." As it was, he could still feel the grief within arm's reach, even after so many years.

"Another brother?" she asked, her voice soft with compassion.

He nodded. "He was kind, more than Ace anyway. He was a noble's son but he always said he was so alone."

"In their world?" He saw her nod, as if to herself. "What happened?"

"He was shot. By some big government guy, I think. I didn't care then. I just knew he was gone forever." It was the first time he'd talked about Sabo in almost five years and he wondered why it still hurt so much.

Without warning, he felt Akane's arms encircle him tightly, drawing his attention to her warmth. It was a kind of inner warmth, surrounding him and quelling the emotions that had surged forth in him at the memory of Sabo. Just as suddenly, he felt the wind swirl around him again, this time more gently, and he knew she had gone elsewhere. The strangest thing about it was he somehow felt better.

* * *

**A/N: And another chapter bites the dust! It's kind of filler but I had to write it. Coming up next - Mock Town! We're all on pins and needles, yeah? Thanks for any and all reviews!**


	16. Blown Out of Proportion

**A/N: Okay, first of all, there might be some typos but hopefully not too many. Editing while downloading a new game is not the best way to proofread. But here's an update! Hope you like! Please R&R!**

* * *

Mock Town, the island of Jaya.

There was something about this place that set Akane on edge, something in the air. She couldn't explain it even inside her own mind, so she didn't bother mentioning it to anyone else. Thinking it might be nothing at all, she forced her mind on the present and was determined to enjoy whatever it was they were doing in this place.

Which, as far as she knew, was to find information about Sky Island and how to get there.

Ships that fell out of the sky and primate salvage captains aside, this was turning into yet another adventure. With a vague feeling of bemusement, Akane was starting to feel like her life had become a long series of interesting occurrences. Even before Ranma's chaotic influence had entered her life, every day was intense, her anger at perverted boys and her fear of one of them having the ability to defeat her making her every moment shine with bright clarity. Sometimes she wondered – especially after this most recent trauma – if all the emotion she carried around would somehow manage to burn her body out.

She could remember that feeling of tiredness: tired of the way Ranma had made her feel like so much less than him, tired of waiting for him to make a decision, tired of the way every day flared up her anger. Even in that last year, which had been marginally better, she felt like Ranma's actions would dictate her own forever. However, here on the Grand Line, where whatever that happened to her was mostly her own fault, she knew it had been unfair, thinking that way.

No, the chaos of Ranma's life was almost never his fault. No, he didn't ask for any of the engagements. No, his actions with the other fiancées were almost never intended to make her mad. The only thing she couldn't sort away was the insults – the endless list of painful words that had worked to increase both her ire and depression. She knew that he meant every word when he said them, remembered easily how they'd gotten more and more creative as time progressed. But again, considering the parent he'd grown up with, there was a distinct possibility that Ranma had had no clue how much words could hurt.

Smiling in wry bemusement, Akane realized that just admitting all of those facts allowed her to let go of the hurt they caused, allowed her to let go of Ranma.

Zoro leaned over and nudged her shoulder. "What're you smiling about?" She waved a hand at him dismissively and he just shrugged, returning his focus to following Nami around the port town.

Akane turned her mind away from Ranma, not quite ready to fully face the dissipation of feelings that at one time seemed to define her. So, she thought about her family. What were they doing right now? Did they miss her? What about the dojo? She'd been gone for at least two months now and it wasn't like she'd died. Just disappeared into thin air…

Poor Daddy.

She broke out of her thoughts when she heard what had to have been the reason for her uneasiness from the moment she stepped foot on the ground of this island. Turning, she watched a blond man with a scar over his right eye approach Luffy. Moments later, a group of people – some of which the same people they'd seen at that wretched excuse for a hotel – entered behind the obvious pirate but Akane paid them no mind. His gravelly voice and arrogant swagger aside, there was something about this man that seemed awfully familiar.

As he spoke mostly words that the black-haired girl paid no mind to, she slowly put it together. A little over a month ago, she'd been inside one of Baroque Works' "treasury houses", which were actually small buildings that monitored the cash flow they received from trapping pirates. There had been a wall of wanted posters, the names upon which had been stored far back in Akane's mind. Now, she remembered him along the top – Bellamy the Hyena, bounty set at fifty-five million Beli.

What did he want with Luffy?

Suddenly, without any warning at all, he slammed her captain's head into the bar, quite effectively splitting the wood in the process. Akane winced slightly before her fists clenched automatically. She had the barest amount of control over herself, reminding herself that Nami wanted them to be cool. No fighting of any kind until she could get some information on the island in the sky. Grudgingly, Akane clenched her eyes shut and took a breath, exhaling out the tension if not the anger.

Only to have it return less than a minute later.

Akane had never liked to be laughed at. Even worse than that, though, was to see someone else laughed at, especially someone that was as close as family. Most especially for something they believed in or were excited about. There were ways to prove them wrong, of course. There had been no strange currents around when that ship came crashing down; most of the stuff their crewmates had found on that ship after it sank was over two hundred years old (at least, according to Nami); and then, there were those shadows to think about.

But those that laugh at dreamers will never grasp the dream.

Even after the laughter died down, Bellamy continued, explaining the novelty of the Knock-Up Stream and how dreams died on the Grand Line. As he continued to tell them about the new "Pirate Era", Akane could feel a muscle tic underneath one of her eyes and the clenching of her jaw. She wanted to pummel him into the ground, to hit him until his face was just a lumpy mound of bruise.

It wasn't until some time later that she realized that Luffy's fighting stance had relaxed during the blond pirate's anti-dreaming speech.

The air lifted around her before the thought even formed in her mind, only bringing her attention to it when a light plank of wood moved against her shin. She concentrated on Bellamy's smug face and her fury magnified tenfold, the gale around her becoming sharp and fierce. From past experience, she knew she was well past the point that she could reel in her anger and now… now she had powers that reacted to her merest whim.

"AKANE!" Luffy bellowed, drawing her focus to him. Instantly, she could see what he was telling her. He was telling her not to fight, not to attack – in fact, he was ordering her not to.

His tone galled her to the point that she could feel her focus shifting. As if she had no self-control, as if no time had passed since her anger at the fiancée problem was continuously directly at Ranma, Akane felt that burning fury now directed at one of the few people in her life that had done nothing to deserve it. With a soft huff, she forced herself to walk away from them, to the open air outside.

Once there, she didn't stop. Her mind halfway noticed the big, dark-haired man outside the tavern but her feet took her stolidly in the opposite direction of the harbor. She needed a big, empty space where she would be free of the fear of possibly hurting anyone. However, she maintained just enough control over herself to keep from slipping into the wind flight, knowing that Devil's Fruit powers terrified even the most hardened of pirates.

Five minutes later, when Akane started to feel that she couldn't stand the pit of fire in her gut any longer, she reached the treeline and the definite edge of the port town. She could see Bellamy in her head, his almost handsome face distorting into something twisted and detestable. His words echoed into her skull and she saw the way his crew treated those around them, as if they were somehow less than them. And finally, she saw Luffy… just taking it.

With an angry scream, the sound roughened by the struggle to erupt from her throat, Akane brought her fist down hard. Because she knew what she was capable of, she expected a small, fist-shaped crater. What she did not expect was the destruction that a single, fury-filled blow caused on the land.

She felt the concussive blast before she heard it, a clap of noise that almost stung her ears. Less than a second later but enough time after the sound for Akane to sense the delay, dirt and loose branches and leaves swirled around her in a fierce whirlwind. She squinted slightly out of habit, though a part of her brain registered that she wasn't getting hit by the debris nearly as often as she should have. She didn't bother to think through that new discovery just yet because her line of sight had cleared enough to see what she had done.

The crater was deep, far deeper than anything she'd ever done before. The hole was at least six feet in diameter, though twice that seemed more likely, and three feet deep. Akane knew this was true because she was staring at the gnarled roots of a nearby tree in numb horror. She couldn't move as her mind calculated this damage against the kind she would have caused in that tavern. She hadn't let herself off a tight leash of control since she was free of Crocodile's Sea Stone prison and this just showed how her newfound powers were growing at an exponential rate.

If Luffy hadn't stopped her, she would have killed Bellamy. Not a great loss to the world, she figured, but it would have been another stain on her conscience. It wasn't just that, though; this deep crater told her that she might have leveled the bar as well, probably hurting many of the innocent people sitting inside.

"I need better control," she murmured softly.

Behind her, someone cleared their throat delicately.

Whirling around, her body settled instantly into a defensive stance. The sight before her, however, caused her to stumble quite a bit. It was a spirit, she knew immediately from the gray indistinct tone of its skin. However, unlike Merry, this spirit didn't have the rounded, unfinished look. Its features were sharp and jagged and there was a blue jeweled pendant hanging from its neck. "Who are you?" she demanded when the shock began to fade.

The spirit looked down at the pendant. "You may call me Sapphire," it told her tonelessly. "The spirit that calls itself Merry told me you have chosen."

"I did?" Akane echoed softly to herself. Then, realizing that the spirit – Sapphire – was standing above her on the undisturbed ground outside the radius of her crater, she remembered the almost subconscious thought of needing help. "I did. You can help me?"

"I am the spirit tied most directly with you. I am connected to both you in this world and the entirety of the world you came from. However, you should know that knowledge is shared among the spirits. So, yes, I know how to help you gain control."

With a relieved sigh, Akane climbed out of the deep crater and sat next to the smaller being. Were all spirits kid-sized or did their size reflect their power, maybe? "How do we start?"

The small spirit opened its mouth, a bland but confident expression painting its face, when it promptly disappeared.

"What the…?"

"Akane!" a voice called, distracting the martial artist from her confusion.

Akane stood, brushing stray bits of dirt from her outfit, and moved toward the source of the voice. It was Robin, she knew immediately. Of course Robin would be the one to find her. Despite how much longer she'd known the rest of the crew, making escape plans with someone has a way of bonding you together.

"I'm here, Robin." She waved with an outstretched arm as she moved around a tree. For just a moment, the massive crater she'd put into the island completely slipped her mind, disappearing spirit guides and the proximity of her friend crowding her mind.

"What happened here?" Robin asked as she caught a glimpse of Jaya's newest hole.

Akane immediately blushed and ducked her head. Sure, the last couple of weeks since escaping Crocodile's clutches had gone mostly without incident but this just showed how little control she really had over herself. More importantly, she needed to find some semblance of control quickly because this would not be the last time she disagreed with their captain and become angry because of it.

"I was kind of… mad," she admitted finally.

Robin released a low whistle but rewarded the younger girl with a smile. "Your power could kill us all," she remarked idly, the words accusing but the tone completely even.

Akane pressed her hands into her eyes. "I know! This is bad, really bad. If I had better control, this never would have happened."

Stepping forward, the dark-haired woman laid a gentle hand on Akane's shoulder. "Don't worry so much. Do you think Luffy or I had much control over our powers at first? The control will come."

"Yes," Akane agreed fiercely. "It will."

Robin laughed softly. "Now, come on. Assuming our dear captain wasn't very successful, I found someone who might be of more use in our search for the island in the sky."

"Really? Who?"

"Montblanc Cricket. He's an outcast of some sort but I found that mentioning the Sky Island enough times kept bringing up his name."

Akane grinned up at her friend. "Let's go."


End file.
